Virginia Tech President Timothy D. Sands (left), Dean Alan Grant, and Professor Richard Crowder (far right) present alumnus C.G. Thornhill an award recognizing his crucial role in Virginia agricultural exports.

Virginia Tech is poised to help feed a growing world population while assisting the state’s agriculture and forestry industries to flourish and become global leaders, said Virginia Tech President Timothy D. Sands during a speech at the 2015 Governor’s Conference on Agricultural Trade.

“Virginia Tech and other land-grant partners, including Virginia State University, are in a great position to be a partner with all of you to take advantage of this opportunity going forward,” Sands told the crowd. “This is a great place to be if you are excited about agriculture.”

At the conference, Gov. Terry McAulliffe announced that in 2014, Virginia once again set a record with more than $3.35 billion in agriculture and forestry exports. That makes Virginia the second-largest agricultural exporter on the East Coast, up from third place the previous year.