Bill seeks doubling of export promotion funding
A Senate bill that would double agricultural export promotion funding over five years has won early support from U.S. produce interests.
On Sept. 20, Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Susan Collins, R-Maine, Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., introduced the Cultivating Revitalization by Expanding American Agricultural Trade and Exports Act, which seeks to double funding for the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program over the next five years.
The bill’s authors said the export promotion programs generated a net return of $28.30 for every dollar invested between 1977 and 2014 and need more funding.
The Senate bill recognizes the importance of export promotion, John Keeling, CEO of the National Potato Council said in a news release. “Since MAP was last increased over a decade ago, our global competitors have added resources to their programs,” he said. “These senators recognize that the U.S. needs to keep pace in the face of foreign competition.”
The USDA export programs have added an annual average of $8.15 billion to the value of American agricultural exports, and added up to 239,800 full and part-time jobs, including 90,000 farm sector jobs.
Even so, MAP and FDMP funding has not increased since the 2002 Farm Bill, according to a news release.
The Market Access Program began in 1985, and allows agricultural trade associations, farmer cooperatives, non-profit trade groups and small businesses to apply for either generic or brand-specific promotion funds to support exporting efforts. Generic commodity funds are issued with a 10% minimum matching fund, while brand-specific funds require a funding match of at least 50%, according to the release.
The Foreign Market Development Program, created in 1955, is mostly used for the promotion of bulk commodities.
The Market Access Program distributed more than $173 million in funds for export promotion in fiscal year 2017, including $4.8 million to the Washington Apple Commission, $2.9 million to USA Pears and $4.8 million to Potatoes USA.
Jim Bair, president and CEO of the U.S. Apple Association, also expressed support for higher export program funding.
“With a third of the apple crop going to export markets every year, anything that helps facilitate that is welcome news from our standpoint,” he said Sept. 25. “Certainly increasing the funds for Market Access Programs is something that we strongly support.”
