The Agriculture Department announced Wednesday it will dole out $300 million during the first year of its new $1.2 billion Regional Agricultural Promotion Program, or RAPP. The funding, which is designed to help ag groups, cooperatives, state agencies and others expand exports of U.S. farm goods, will be released in tranches and those who receive funding will have five years to use the money.
The USDA on Thursday took a key step in the process of introducing its Regional Agricultural Promotion Program by publishing a final rule in the Federal Register that is scheduled to be effective on Friday. The $1.3 billion program is just part of USDA’s plans to step up assistance for exporters and the Department also unveiled its plan for new trade missions next year to Vietnam, India, South Korea, Canada, Colombia and Morocco.
The Department of Agriculture has agreed to use Commodity Credit Corporation funds to spend about $1.4 billion on a program to help farm groups market their commodities overseas and about $1.1 billion to pay for commodity-based international food aid, according to sources.
Farm groups have grown accustomed over the last few years to having more money to work with for promoting their products overseas, but that abundance could come to an end quickly.