Posted December 23, 2013
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says a new farm bill is needed to continue record U.S. agricultural exports, according to the Secretary’s Column of the USDA blog, available here.
Exports of U.S. farm and ranch products reached a record $140.9 billion in 2013 and supported about 1 million U.S. jobs. Compared to the “previous five year period, from 2004-2008, U.S. agricultural exports from 2009-2013 increased by a total of nearly $230 billion.”
According to Vilsack, programs in the farm bill, particularly the Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) and Market Access Program (MAP), have allowed USDA to work with U.S. businesses to expand trade.
MAP and FMD create $35 in economic benefits for every dollar invested.
Vilsack said, the “Farm Bill stands at the heart of our trade promotion effort, and companies across the nation need a renewed commitment to agricultural trade promotions that only a new Farm Bill can provide.”
USDA has also provided a “record number of farm loans – more than 159,000 – to help farmers get started and keep growing…A new Farm bill would continue assistance to farm businesses through loans and loan guarantees, while also reauthorizing disaster assistance programs and providing retroactive help to livestock producers who have been hit particularly hard in the past two years.”
Farm Futures reported on the story here, interviewing those involved in food export businesses.
Tim Hamilton, director of Food Export-Midwest and Food Export-Northeast, said that the uncertainty has left exported businesses behind. “We need to make commitments to retailers to importers, distributors around the world,” Hamilton said. “Because we haven’t had a commitment on the farm bill, unfortunately we haven’t been able to make those commitments.”
Hamilton continued, “If you are successful in business you have to plan ahead…Our customers just don’t understand the challenges we face – previously with the government shutdown and now why we can’t answer questions about what our plans will be for 2014.”
For more information on agricultural trade and farm bills, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center hereand here.
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