Administration likes Foreign Marketing Development Program

Farm and Ranch August 30, 2010 During her recent visit to the northwest Darci Vetter, Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, said in an interview that USDA wants to expand the Foreign Market Development Program, also know as the Cooperator Program or FMD.

Under FMD, USDA partially reimburses cooperators, like U.S. Wheat Associates, the U.S. Grain Council or the U.S. Meat Export Federation, for conducting approved overseas promotional activities.

Vetter explains what USDA has in mind to expand FMD.

Vetter: “Well, what we’d like to do in many ways is redouble our efforts in what we are already doing. We want to continue working with producer groups to put together programs in a number of countries that will promote U.S. products. Those programs have been a strength of USDA for sometime. A recent study published by Informa Economics recently evaluated that for every one dollar the U.S. government spends on those programs 35 dollars of new exports are generated. So, in part we just want to keep a good thing going.”

Vetter says the President is also putting his money where his mouth is.

Vetter: “And his 2011 budget request to Congress asks for a significant increase in funding for those programs and we certainly hope Congress will see it through.”

This is all part of Obama’s announced National Export Initiative which has the goal of doubling U. S. exports in five years.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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