State agencies assist export growth
Washington Ag Today October 31, 2011 The Washington State Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce have reported record Fiscal Year 2011 sales of 241 million dollars from state export assistance. State programs at Commerce and WSDA provide small and medium sized businesses with export training and counseling, facilitate international trade show participation, and assist trading partner and market introductions. The WSDA says its International Marketing Program continues to pay for itself, with $3.38 in additional tax revenues due to economic development for ever taxpayer dollar invested in the program. ? Cattle producers are still waiting to hear what will happen with USDA’s proposed rule on livestock marketing. The so-called GIPSA rule. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA is working to finalize the rule and says more will be available in the near future, but he’s not promising any specific timeline. Vilsack: “There is an elaborate process that you have to go through, not only internally in the USDA but also in the interagency process and that takes time. So I don‘t want to pin myself down to a time. I will say we are working on this and people are waiting for some indication on where this is headed and we appreciate the fact it has been a while. But I hope they understand we are taking the comments very seriously and we want to do the very best job in making decisions about the next step in this process.” It has been more than a year since USDA released the proposed GIPSA rule. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net.
