USCG's International Marketing Conference

USCG’s International Marketing Conference. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Members of the corn, sorghum and barley industries are gathering this week at the U.S. Grains Council’s 52nd Annual Meeting and 9th International Marketing Conference in Panama City, Panama. Christian Foster - Deputy Administrator of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service Office of Trade Programs - explains the five-year strategic plan in place for FAS - which has three guiding pillars.

FOSTER: Trade promotion, trade policy, market access issues and trade capacity building and food security matters. Our plan which is jut now being finished through 2016 has an objective of raising our exports by $65-billion dollars. As you know right now U.S. ag exports are currently $132-billion. The truth is USDA isn’t going to raise the export level, it’s groups like this today and other cooperators that work everyday using some of the tax payers money and matching it with their own to raise export levels.

The Trade Action Plan covers 20 countries - Foster says.

FOSTER: It’s not the top 20 exporting nations, it’s the top 20 countries where we have market access issues and where focus and expect the next biggest gain. We also at the country level have a country strategic statement and lastly as you know the President just in 2010 announced his export goals, his national export initiative and as you can see here he mentions raising our exports which is so important to the U.S. economy to over $3-trillion dollars from the $1.6-trillion dollars that it was in 2010.

And regarding the next farm bill

FOSTER: And while the Secretary has said we don’t write the farm bill, we simply provide any assistance to Congress that it may ask or require, he has said in recent meetings that he would expect the farm bill would address a number of key areas, financial help for producers when needed, conservation issues and most importantly he did emphasis that the farm bill needs to stress and encourage continued expanded trade as it’s so vital to agriculture.

The USGC meeting continues through Thursday.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.