U.S. farm groups were quick to cheer Tuesday's announcement of a $1.3 billion investment in a new Regional Agricultural Promotion Program after waiting for weeks for the USDA to confirm its plans to fund a new program to help promote ag exports.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Tuesday that he expects RAPP – which will be funded through USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation - to be finalized by the end of this year or early next year and run for the next several years.
“I’ve experienced first-hand the immense positive impact on consumers, companies, and countries around the world, and on our U.S. agricultural economy from this type of sustained investment,” U.S. Soybean Export Council CEO Jim Sutter said in a statement. “This funding helps American producers compete in established overseas markets and expand into new ones.”
USSEC is already a major user of current USDA export promotion programs like the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD), as are groups representing dairy, corn, beef, pork, rice and other commodities.
“Now more than ever, the U.S. dairy industry relies on exports,” said National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “If distributed to those sectors that are presently underfunded such as dairy, the new export promotion funding will put us in a better position to compete globally and grow our consumer base.”
Vilsack said RAPP is especially important because the CCC funds will provide security amid the uncertainty that surrounds the next farm bill.
Lawmakers and many farm groups have been pushing for MAP and FMD funds to be doubled in the next farm bill, but there is growing concern that the money may not be available to make that happen; it’s also unclear if lawmakers will even be able to finish a new farm bill before the end of the year.
Regardless, farm groups are still calling for those programs to get more funding on top of the RAPP announcement Tuesday.
U.S. Grains Council President and CEO Ryan LeGrand on Tuesday thanked USDA for RAPP, but also stressed the need for more.
“The success of the Council would not be possible without its partners in both the public and private sector, and we look forward to expanding exports of corn, sorghum, barley and their co-products with this new source of funding, however, there is still a need to increase long-term funding of the MAP and FMD programs in a new farm bill,” said LeGrand.
Vilsack also stressed Tuesday that RAPP will be needed to address the looming expiration of the temporary Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) program, an initiative similar to MAP and FMD that was initiated under the Trump administration to help farmers compensate for the Chinese trade war. ATP funding expires next year.
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“With ATP funding coming to the end, new investments in foreign market development are very timely and much appreciated,” says U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Dan Halstrom. “We also thank Congressional leaders for their support of this program and for their continued support of MAP and FMD funding.”
Vilsack also confirmed Tuesday that the USDA plan to use the CCC for $1.3 billion in ag export promotion, as well as $1 billion to buy up more U.S. commodities for international food aid, was in response to a request from Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow and Sen. John Boozman, the ranking Republican.
“As we continue our work writing a strong, bipartisan farm bill, American farmers and producers have been clear about the need to strengthen trade opportunities, increase revenue streams, and help producers grow and thrive in a global economy,” Stabenow and Boozman said in a joint statement released Tuesday. “As we also face rising global food insecurity, it is also clear that our country must do everything we can to address humanitarian needs abroad while supporting American farmers.”
The two also stressed that they and other lawmakers “look forward to continuing our work to deliver a strong, bipartisan Farm Bill that meets the needs of farmers and the American people.”
Despite that ongoing work, Vilsack said there now seems to be no doubt that Congress will have to approve an extension to the 2018 farm bill by the end of the year because of a variety of legislative factors including the ongoing process to find agreement on a new House Speaker.
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