USDA Publishes Additional Ag Promotion Program Funds Announcement

USDA has published a funding notice for the second tranche of the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program, which utilized Commodity Credit Corporation funds to diversify export markets to US agricultural products. The second round matches the $300 million allocated to various organizations in the initial investment announced earlier this year, US Meat Export Federation, President and CEO, Dan Halstrom, says that wrap funding will accelerate the development of emerging markets around the globe.

“What this program allows us to do is to diversify, expand resources, human resources. Boots on the ground, we have offices in 20 regions around the world, and this will enable us to expand into regions like Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa, and this is one of the beauties of it, because expedites market development and an area that will probably develop anyway, but not nearly as quick as it potentially could now with this extra funding, like I said, not only for USMEF but for a lot of our sister organizations in a cooperating community.”

Holstrom elaborates on a USMEF priority region for the RAPP funding.

“We've already focused in on some of these developing regions, none bigger than Africa. Africa is a mainstay of the wrap program in both tranche one and tranche two.”

President and CEO of the US Meat Export Federation, Dan Holstrom.