Study Highlights Importance of Keeping Pace on Ag Export Promotion Funding

The latest analysis of agricultural export promotion investment shows that U.S. public funding for its two largest export promotion programs is about $235 million per year. But due to inflation and other factors, the real value of this investment has declined 12 percent since 2011. During this same period, major competitors increased their investment in promotion of agricultural exports by 70 percent.

Greg Hanes, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) assistant vice president for international marketing and programs, provides more details on this study, and on efforts to bolster support for U.S. investment in the promotion of agricultural exports in the next farm bill, in the attached audio report.

The study, conducted by Informa Economics, focused primarily on the European Union’s export development investment, but also reviewed public funding levels of other major competitors such as Australia, Canada, Chile and New Zealand. Europe’s total public investment (including the EU-28 and four European countries that are not EU members) is expected to exceed $550 million in 2019, more than twice the annual combined total authorized for the USDA Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) Program in the current farm bill. In fact, the study found that the EU is investing about $300 million per year in wine export promotion alone. More details from the study are available in this news release from the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports and the Agribusiness Coalition for Foreign Market Development, and at www.agexportscount.com.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: A new study suggests that the United States may be falling behind its competitors, especially the European Union, when it comes to promoting agricultural products internationally. Greg Hanes, assistant vice president of international marketing for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, has more about the study in this USMEF report.

Greg Hanes: There’s basically two key government programs that USMEF utilizes. Total funding for the Market Access Program is about $200 million per year, but there are about 70 cooperator organizations that are handling different agricultural commodities that are all applying for and utilizing that program. And then there is also the Foreign Market Development, or FMD, program. That receives funding of about $34.5 million. We typically use the MAP program more for direct programming in the international markets and the FMD program is utilized for a lot of the administrative costs that we have in running those programs. The group that these cooperators worked with is a company called Informa Economics, and their focus was really looking at the EU as a competitor and what they are doing to promote their agricultural products internationally. The results were really startling. They found that the European wine industry alone was receiving more than $300 million just for their promotions. So that one industry alone is more than the entire ag community in the United States is receiving on ag promotions internationally.

Joe Schuele: U.S. funding for promotion of ag exports has been largely flat in recent years. Hanes says the opportunity to change that is in the upcoming Farm Bill.

Greg Hanes: We’re in the last year of the current Farm Bill so we need to set up the new Farm Bill in 2019. I think it’s really imperative that we need to get the word out and assure that these programs remain funded at least at their existing levels, if not at higher levels. And so that’s a huge effort that’s going on right now to truly demonstrate the benefits and the value that are achieved from agricultural exports.

Joe Schuele: For more one this issue, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.