An industry lobby group has urged the US House of Representatives to introduce a new five-year Farm Bill to ensure government funding of offshore agricultural marketing and market access initiatives continues.
According to a report in the Packer, the Coalition to Promote US Agricultural Exports addressed a letter to the House of Representatives outlining the need to institute a new Farm Bill as the previous - drafted in 2008 - expired in September of this year.
The farm bill assigns authority for the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service to run market promotion and development programmes including the US$200m per year Market Access Program and US$30m per year Foreign Market Development programme for fiscal year 2013, the letter stated.
The Market Access Programme (MAP), which is often matched with industry dollars, helps fund promotions of a variety of crops. According to the Packer The Washington Apple Commission received more than US$5m in MAP funding in fiscal year 2011, while Sunkist Growers received more than US$3m over the same period.
Coalition spokesman Justin Darisse said without new Farm Bill funding many export promotion programmes would soon run out of money.
“The `6 November` election will certainly have an impact but there are a number of different commodity groups that need action on a Farm Bill before the end of the year, and I think we are not looking across the agricultural community in pushing for action,” he said.
The coalition's letter drew attention a recent USDA-commissioned study by IHS Global Insight, which found US food and agricultural exports increased by US$35 for every additional US$1 invested by government and industry on market development from 2002 to 2009, the Packer reported.
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