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U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) announced on Feb. 4 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allocated $234.5 million to 70 U.S. trade organizations, including USW, to help promote U.S. food and agricultural products overseas.
The funding was allocated under the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Cooperator Program, both administered by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).
"These programs are deemed to be minimally distorting to world trade and qualified as ‘Green Box’ programs by the World Trade Organization," said Alan Tracy, USW president. "These programs are very successful public-private partnerships that ultimately benefit export customers, too."
The MAP uses funds from USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to share the costs of overseas market development and promotional activities with U.S. nonprofit agricultural trade organizations, state regional trade groups, and cooperatives, USW said. Activities conducted with MAP funding include market research, consumer promotions for retail products, technical capacity building, and seminars to educate overseas customers. Under the FMD program, USDA's CCC establishes a partnership with nonprofit U.S. agricultural trade organizations to help fund their overseas presence.
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