Today, to help expand export markets for U.S. food and ag products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) announced awarding more than $212 million through the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) program.
FAS broke the allocations out to $181,397,751 for the MAP program and $31,331,501 in FMD.
MAP allocates funds to ag industry organizations across the United States to promote U.S. fruits, vegetables, nuts, processed products and bulk and intermediate commodities to global consumers. The Foreign Market Development (FMD) program benefits U.S. farmers, processors and exporters by addressing long–term foreign market import constraints and by identifying new markets or new uses for U.S. agricultural commodities.
FAS establishes public-private partnerships with non-profit U.S. agricultural trade associations like USGBC to open markets and conduct overseas marketing and promotional activities on behalf of U.S. agricultural producers and processors.
In response to the announcement, USGBC President & CEO Ryan LeGrand said:
“Our job at the U.S. Grains & BioProducts Council is to open new markets for our farmers, ranchers, and producers, and both MAP and FMD annual allocations allow us to meet our mission to develop markets, enable trade and improve lives for those around the world and here at home.
“We thank President Trump and his administration, specifically USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and Undersecretary Luke Lindberg, for these funds that allow our organization to develop global markets and promote exports of our corn, sorghum, barley, ethanol and co-products.”
