Agro Perspectiva

USDA Accepting Applications for Fiscal Year 2011 Export Assistance

18.05.2010 10:14 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that it is accepting applications for 2011 funding for five export market development programs administered by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service: the Market Access Program (MAP), the Foreign Market Development Cooperator Program (FMD), the Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) Program, the Quality Samples Program (QSP), and the Emerging Markets Program (EMP). All the programs are designed to help expand commercial export markets for U.S. agricultural products. Applications for all five programs are due by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on June 11, 2010. For QSP, TASC, and EMP, applications received after this deadline will be considered for funding if money remains available following the initial funding decision. The MAP provides cost-share assistance to nonprofit U.S. trade organizations and small-sized entities to help create, expand and maintain foreign markets for U.S. agricultural commodities and products. MAP participants must contribute a minimum of 10 percent of the funds provided by the program for the cost of generic marketing and promotion activities and a dollar for dollar match for branded promotions. Under the MAP, unlike the FMD, funding can be used for activities that directly target individual consumers. MAP regulations are expected to be amended this fall to improve the program’s effectiveness and efficiency. The FMD program provides cost-share assistance to nonprofit U.S. agricultural trade organizations to develop and maintain foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products. FMD cooperators must contribute a minimum of 50 percent of the funds provided by the program. FMD funds are allocated to U.S. trade organizations with the broadest possible producer representation. Priority is given to organizations that are nationwide in membership and scope. Activities must contribute to the maintenance or growth of demand for agricultural commodities and generally address long-term foreign import constraints and export growth opportunities. The TASC program is designed to assist U.S. organizations by providing funding for projects that address sanitary, phytosanitary, or related technical barriers that prohibit or threaten the export of U.S. specialty crops. U.S. specialty crops, for the purpose of the TASC program, are defined to include all cultivated plants, or the products thereof, produced in the United States, except wheat, feed grains, oilseeds, cotton, rice, peanuts, sugar, and tobacco. The QSP helps U.S. organizations supply samples of U.S. commodities to potential foreign buyers to be used in technical assistance projects displaying product quality and proper use as a means to encourage new purchases. The program supports projects that benefit whole industries rather than individual companies. When a project is finished, USDA reimburses the costs for procuring and exporting the samples. The EMP assists U.S. entities in developing, maintaining, or expanding exports of U.S. agricultural commodities and products by funding activities that improve emerging markets’ food and rural business systems, including reducing potential trade barriers in such markets. The program can be used for technical assistance, such as activities that focus on trade capacity building or addressing technical barriers to trade. The EMP has a cost-sharing requirement.