International Ag Irrigation Leaders Come Together In Business Following Award For Winning Product

Dragon-Line Mobile Drip Irrigation won the New Product of the Year award in December 2016,  at the Irrigation Association Show in Las Vegas. For a small-town company originating in Ulysses, this was a big deal. When Monty Teeter, CEO of Dragon-Line, returned to his trade show booth, he was approached by two men.

Charles Medawar ran an irrigation consulting & supply business in Saudi Arabia and Ha-san Alshehri of INMA was one of his clients. They came to Monty’s booth and said, “We have to buy this product!”

It was the first time Dragon-Line had considered international sales. In the coming months, Teeter, Medawar, Alshehri, and Marieta Hauser, Director of Grant County Chamber of Commerce, worked to get Dragon-Line into Saudi Arabia.

They faced many challenges, including paperwork approval, system shipping logistics, and providing a certificate of origin. Medawar flew in from the Middle East to help guide the team as he had some experience with international exports. It was the first time Hauser used the Chamber of Commerce seal on an official document, and the first time Teeter shipped a system by air.

By September 2017, a system shipped to Saudi Arabia, and Dragon-Line officially became international.

Since then, the award-winning small-town irrigation company has sold systems to several other countries including Azerbaijan, Australia, Mexico, Egypt, and more.

Six years later, Saudi Arabia has 16 Dragon-Line systems and counting.

In June of this year, Medawar and Alshehri visited with Teeter in Ulysses. It had been a long time since their first meeting at the Irrigation Show in 2016. Together they toured Dragon-Line’s corporate and manufacturing facilities and met Hauser in person.

Then they traveled to Amarillo, Texas and met with six other Saudi agriculture executives. They toured CSS Farms in Dalhart, Texas, and the USDA Bushland, Texas, facility to see how Dragon-Line works in the field. They discussed new techniques for growing potatoes and wheat, as well as different presentation styles for the company.

“We never dreamed we would go international,” Teeter said.

Next month, he plans to travel to Egypt, Turkey, and Israel for Dragon-Line - places he never considered until he met Medawar and Alshehri.

The impact of the partnership has not been lossed on Hauser.

“It opened my eyes on how important our corner of the world is,” she said.