On May 21, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced funding allocations for the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP), which utilizes Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds to diversify export markets for U.S. agricultural products.
U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom issued the following statement:
USMEF is honored to participate in RAPP and we thank Secretary Vilsack and the staff at USDA for their vision and leadership in implementing this program. The additional investment in foreign market development is very timely and will be especially helpful in expanding demand for U.S. red meat in emerging export markets. USMEF also appreciates the role Congressional leaders played in the development of RAPP. We thank them for their support of this program and for prioritizing Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) funding in the new Farm Bill.