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 …

Perdue: U.S. Farm Exports Hit 3rd Highest Level on Record

U.S. agricultural exports totaled $140.5 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2017, climbing nearly $10.9 billion from the previous year to the third-highest level on record, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced today. As it has done for well over 50 years, the U.S. agricultural sector once again posted an annual trade surplus, which reached $21.3 billion, up almost 30 …

USDA Takes Successful Trade Mission to India

India serves as the first trade mission stop for Ted McKinney, the newly minted Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. McKinney led a group of 50 men and women, representing 29 agricultural companies, associations, and state governments, overseas in an effort to boost trade opportunities between the U.S. and India, which is the 17th largest export …

China Imports More U.S. Trash than Ag Products

China imports more U.S. trash than agricultural commodities, but that could soon change. China earlier this year filed a notice with the World Trade Organization about its plans to limit the entry of “foreign waste.” The Wall Street Journal reports this week that under the new rules, China by year’s end would ban imports of used plastics and require paper-scrap …

Ag Exports Groups Urge Passage of the CREAATE Act

A coalition supporting ag exports is urging Senators to pass legislation to expand the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development program. The Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports and the Agribusiness Coalition for Foreign Market Development say the Cultivating Revitalization by Expanding American Agricultural Trade and Exports, or CREAATE Act, would boost trade’s impact on U.S. farmer profitability and …