The Agriculture Department announced Wednesday it will dole out $300 million during the first year of its new $1.2 billion Regional Agricultural Promotion Program, or RAPP.
The funding — designed to help ag groups, cooperatives, state agencies and others expand exports of U.S. farm goods — will be released in tranches; recipients will have five years to use the money.
Applications for the first tranche are due by Feb. 2, 2024, and USDA is warning that it is putting the highest value on plans to promote U.S. ag commodities to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as South and Southeast Asia. USDA says it’s earmarking $25 million in funding to the first tranche specifically for work in Africa.
USDA also says that it wants the new program to drive “market diversification,” so applicants are expected to focus on “diverse and nontraditional markets.” For now, the current top foreign markets for U.S. ag commodities — China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union — cannot be the locations for RAPP efforts.
“Future tranches of funds will be released in future years to ensure that the focus of funding can be adapted to changing trade environments and market conditions,” USDA said in the Wednesday announcement.
The five-year period for using funds from the first tranche runs from June 1, 2024, to Sept. 20, 2029.
“It takes significant investment to open and develop new export markets and this new fund will be dedicated to helping provide that start-up capital so that American exporters can diversify their markets and create new opportunities,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.
“There are many regions of the world — in South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa — where the middle class is growing and the desire for high quality products is increasing,” he added. “In order to capture those markets from our competitors we need to have a presence, address barriers, and showcase America’s high-quality, agricultural products across the world.”
The Regional Agricultural Promotion Program is funded by USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation. Vilsack announced the program after Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and senior Republican, John Boozman of Arkansas, asked USDA in August to use the CCC to help fund trade promotion and international food aid.
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“We are diligently working to produce a strong Farm Bill that can earn majority support in both chambers of Congress,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Vilsack. “We urge you to consider these requests and stand ready to support USDA in its effort to address these needs.”
USDA made no mention in the Wednesday announcement of an international food aid component of its CCC pledge to Stabenow and Boozman, but Vilsack is planning to spend about $1 billion to pay for additional international commodity-based food aid.
Lorena Alfaro, executive director of the U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council, said in a recent interview that the group welcomed new market development funding.
“USAEDC and its members are deeply grateful for USDA’s support and the recognition that the export programs are chronically underfunded,” she told Agri-Pulse. “With the additional funding, USAEDC members will be better positioned to compete in the global marketplace and significantly expand their export strategies.”
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