The Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports, of which NCC is a member, this week wrote to the House and Senate Subcommittees on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration expressing the need for American farmers and businesses to have continued investment in the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Program.
Specifically, the coalition requested that Congress maintain $255 million for Agricultural Trade Promotion and Facilitation and that within this amount, MAP receive at least $200 million and the FMD program receive at least $34.5 million. “Working to expand our export markets requires every dollar these programs provide,” the coalition wrote.
MAP and FMD are cost-share programs and continue to showcase examples of effective public-private partnership. Government investment is an important part of this effort; however, industry funds now represent about 73 percent of total annual spending on market development and promotion, up from roughly 45 percent in 1996 and less than 30 percent in 1991. For every dollar invested, coalition partners return more than $28 in export gains. And over a decade, these programs are responsible for export growth totaling $309 billion and 240,000 full and part-time jobs.
A full copy of the letter can be found here.
