U.S. Wheat Applies for RAPP Funding to Promote Domestic Wheat Overseas

U.S. Wheat Associates has applied for funding through the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program from USDA. The USDA anticipates having $300 million to allocate to this program for organizations to apply for. US Wheat Associates, Vice President of Communications, Steve Mercer says this initiative provides benefits not just for U.S. Wheat Associates, but for other foreign agricultural service cooperatives as well.

“One of the ways that we intend to use that is in the Colombian market. Colombia is a growing market good opportunity for us. It's close, of course, they have ports on both the Pacific and in the Caribbean. So we have ports on both of those areas. So it's a good opportunity, but in this case shows how our food aid programs also helped to build a longer-term opportunities. And specifically in this case, our team in South America was approached by a nonprofit organization. They wanted to conduct a food aid program. This is a way if the federal government purchases the wheat donated to those nonprofit organizations, then they can monetize it by selling it to local flour mills and using that money to fund their development programs.”

Mercer says if U.S. Wheat secures funding, it would allow them to employ a technical expert in Africa, a resource they currently lack.