USDA awards $100M in second round of Ag Trade Promotion funding

The USDA revealed the recipients of an $100 million in awards to create new markets in the aftermath of trade wars.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the names of the 48 organizations that will share in the second round of assistance through the Agricultural Trade Promotion Program, or ATP. The ATP is designed to help U.S. farmers and ranchers identify and access new export markets.

In May, President Trump authorized USDA to provide up to $16 billion in programs to support farmers, which is in line with the estimated impacts of unjustified retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods and other trade disruptions. ATP is one of three programs that will assist agricultural producers while President Trump works to address long-standing market access barriers.

“China and other nations haven’t played by the rules for a long time and President Trump is standing up to them, sending a clear message that the United States will no longer tolerate their unfair trade practices,” Secretary Perdue said in a news release issued July 19. “At USDA, we are always looking to expand existing markets or open new ones and this infusion of money will do just that. American farmers are so productive that we need to continue to expand our markets wherever we can to sell the bounty of the American harvest.”

The 48 recipients are among the cooperator organizations that applied for $200 million in ATP funds in 2018 that were awarded earlier this year. As part of a new round of support for farmers impacted by unjustified retaliation and trade disruption, those groups had the opportunity to be considered for additional support for their work to boost exports for U.S. agriculture, food, fish, and forestry products.

The top five monetary awards in the July distribution were awarded American Soybean Association, $12.7M ($34.6M total); U.S. Meat Export Federation, $10M ($27.5M); U.S. Grains Council $6.8M ($7.78M); Food Export USA Northeast, $6.8M ($20.6M); Food Export Association of the Midwest, $6.6M ($20.5M).

The U.S. Dairy Export Council was awarded $2.5M ($7.7M) in the latest distribution. While the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin was tapped to receive an additional $2.5M in July for an annual payout of $1.3M. The Wine Institute received $15.9M in federal funding.

Already, since the $200 million in assistance was announced in January, U.S. exporters have had significant success, including a trade mission to Pakistan that generated $10 million in projected 2019 sales of pulse crops, a new marketing program for Alaska seafood that led to more than $4 million in sales of salmon to Vietnam and Thailand, and a comprehensive marketing effort by the U.S. soybean industry that has increased exposure in more than 50 international markets.

These funds will continue to generate sales and business for U.S. producers and exporters many times over as promotional activity continues for the next couple of years.

The list of ATP funding recipients is available at: https://bit.ly/2UBgejS.