California Ag Network

Tag: MAP

  • USDA Announces Four Ag Trade Promotion Programs for 2025

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is launching agricultural trade promotion programs for 2025 and accepting applications for four export market development programs. USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service has opened funding opportunities for the Market Access Program (MAP), Foreign Market Development Program (FMD), Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops Program (TASC), and Emerging Markets Program (EMP) that will help U.S. agricultural producers promote and sell their goods internationally. This action follows U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ Friday announcement detailing six international trade trips in the next six months to promote U.S. agricultural exports. The Secretary will visit Vietnam, Japan, India, Peru, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

    “Our job at USDA is to open new markets for our farmers, ranchers, and producers. The previous administration left agriculture with a $50 billion trade deficit. President Trump and I will not sit idly by – we are actively working to open new markets and remove existing barriers,” said Secretary Rollins. “We are putting farmers first. These programs are a crucial step in sustaining long lasting economic growth in rural America.”

    Background:

    The application deadline for the four programs is June 6, 2025.

    The Market Access Program (MAP), at $200 million annually, allocates funds to ag industry organizations across the United States to promote U.S. fruits, vegetables, nuts, processed products, and bulk and intermediate commodities to global consumers. The average MAP participant provides more than $2.50 in contributions for every $1 in federal funding it receives through the program. More information about the program and the FY 2026 funding opportunity.

    The Foreign Market Development (FMD) program awards $34.5 million annually to benefit U.S. farmers, processors, and exporters by addressing long–term foreign market import constraints and by identifying new markets or new uses for U.S. agricultural commodities. FMD recipients, which contribute on average more than $2.50 for every $1 in federal funding they receive through the program, will conduct activities that help maintain or increase demand for U.S. agricultural commodities overseas. More information about the program and the FY 2026 funding opportunity.

    The Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops program (TASC) makes available $9 million annually to fund projects that address sanitary, phytosanitary, and technical barriers that prohibit or threaten the export of U.S. specialty crops. More information about the program and the FY 2026 funding opportunity.

    The Emerging Markets Program (EMP) uses $8 million annually to support assessment and technical assistance activities intended to develop, maintain, or expand opportunities for U.S. agricultural exports in emerging markets. More information about the program and the FY 2026 funding opportunity.

    Through MAP, FMD, TASC, and EMP, FAS establishes public-private partnerships with non-profit U.S. agricultural trade associations, farmer cooperatives, non-profit state-regional trade groups, state agencies, and small businesses to open markets and conduct overseas marketing and promotional activities on behalf of U.S. agricultural producers and processors.

    These programs are funded by mandatory statutory funding per the direction of Congress. USDA takes seriously the disbursement of taxpayer dollars and will closely follow the program to ensure good return on investment.

  • USDA Awards Organic Trade Association Over $1M for Global Organic Promotion

    The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is pleased to announce it has received a total of $1,042,035 in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Market Access Program (MAP) to promote U.S. organic products around the world in 2025.

    This funding includes $971,393 in new allocations and $70,642 in carryover funds. The award comes alongside the additional $2.5 million received at the end of 2024 from the second tranche of the Regional Agricultural Promotional Program (RAPP). This $5 million in RAPP funding paired with the new MAP funding offers critical support to bring U.S. organic companies to trade activities globally and continue to open foreign markets.

    “Consumers around the world are choosing organic,” says Sarah Gorman, Manager of International Trade for OTA. “Our activities showcase and educate key markets on the quality, integrity, and variety of USDA certified organic products available for export. This year’s activities are taking place in a wide range of markets – from our more established trading partners to new untapped markets.”

    “Since 1999, OTA has been participating in USDA’s Market Access Program and bringing the U.S. organic industry to markets throughout the globe. We’ve created new opportunities for organic businesses through international promotions, organic exporter education and business to business connections. These opportunities don’t just help organic farmers – they also create jobs and economic opportunities across all sectors,” says OTA co-CEO Tom Chapman.

    Global demand for U.S. organic continues to strengthen as American exporters introduce new products annually to consumers overseas. USDA statistics show an 18 percent increase in exports over the last year. Canada and Mexico remain the primary export destination for U.S. organic products by a wide margin, though Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates are also strong export markets. Within the last couple of years, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and India have also edged into the top 10 export destinations.

    The USDA has estimated that for each $1 invested in export market development, U.S. agricultural exports have increased by more than $24. The department is providing a total of $172.3 million through MAP for fiscal year 2025 to 70 Market Development Program Cooperators.

    OTA is showcasing American-produced organic products to a wide and diverse global audience this year, from the world’s biggest organic trade fair in Germany to trade shows and missions stretching across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

    The year’s activities have already kicked off in a big and successful way. OTA hosted its largest pavilion ever with 18 U.S. organic companies at Biofach in Nuremberg, Germany, in early February. Biofach is the world’s largest trade fair devoted to organic, attracting thousands of international visitors. Following Germany, OTA sponsored five organic brands to the sprawling Gulfood show in Dubai, the largest food and beverage trade show in the MidEast. Next it was the big 50th FoodEx in Tokyo, where OTA showcased six organic companies. Other 2025 trade promotion activities on the calendar are Food & Hotel Asia in Singapore, Thaifex in Bangkok, Anuga in Germany, and FiE in Paris.

    With this robust 2025 funding, OTA plans to continue its consumer promotion activities in Japan, Canada, and Hong Kong, along with launching new promotions in Southeast Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

    The Regional Agricultural Promotional Program (RAPP) was launched in 2023 by USDA to diversify and expand market opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products into new markets in parts of the world where the middle class is growing and the desire for high-quality food and farm products is increasing. Activities have focused on boosting U.S. organic exports to Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. The newest allocation includes the EU, where OTA is planning a new consumer promotion campaign, as well as support for its traditional trade promotion programming.

    RAPP funding allowed for OTA’s first engagement in Africa in 2024, where OTA sponsored four U.S. organic companies in a USDA Agriculture Trade Mission to Casablanca, Morocco to initially explore and open the markets of Morocco and West Africa for U.S. organic exports. This mission created key partnerships with local buyers, the American Chamber of Commerce in Morocco, and other cooperators attending the mission. Participating companies learned more about this still niche market and consumer preferences, and took an important first step into exploring the region and creating future opportunities.

    OTA’s member companies provide the bulk of all U.S. organic exports. The market promotion activities administered by the association are open to the entire organic industry, however, not just members. For more information or to sign up for activities, visit OTA’s website.

    About the Organic Trade Association
    The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is the membership-based business association for organic agriculture and products in North America. OTA is the leading voice for the organic trade in the United States, representing organic businesses and producers across the nation. Its members include growers, shippers, processors, certifiers, farmers’ associations, distributors, importers, exporters, consultants, brands, retailers and others. OTA’s mission is to promote and protect ORGANIC with a unifying voice that serves and engages its diverse members from farm to marketplace.

  • Scientists Serve Up Vaccine Cocktail for Protecting Cattle from Disease

    Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have developed a new experimental vaccine to protect cattle from the bacterium that causes Johne’s disease, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP).

    Johne’s disease, also known as paratuberculosis, is a chronic intestinal disorder that can cause diarrhea, weight loss, poor health and sometimes death in afflicted cattle. In the United States, Johne’s disease is most prevalent in dairy herds, costing the industry more than $220 million annually in losses. The disease also affects other ruminant animals, including sheep, goats and deer.

    Rather than use the cells of live but weakened or dead MAP, as has been done with past commercial vaccine formulations, ARS microbiologists Judy Stabel and John Bannantine set their sights on four proteins from the bacterium, which they discovered from prior research to sequence and characterize its genome (or, genetic makeup).

    In preliminary trials, vaccinating mice with the proteins reduced bacterial colonization of the rodents’ intestinal walls and bacterial shedding in feces, a major route by which other hosts become infected. Cattle, for example, can become infected while grazing pasture where MAP-contaminated manure is located. Calves ingesting colostrum from an infected dam is another route of infection, noted Stabel, who along with Bannantine, is with the ARS National Animal Disease Center’s Infectious Bacterial Diseases Research Unit in Ames, Iowa.

    Encouraged by the results with mice, the researchers scaled-up their efforts, using standard laboratory procedures to produce the four proteins and combine them into a single, recombinant vaccine “cocktail” that could be administered to calves at doses of 200 or 400 micrograms.

    Throughout, the researchers strived to avoid shortcomings of past vaccine formulations that had been developed, including a tendency to trigger blemishes at the site of injection and interference with the accuracy of serological tests used to detect not only MAP, but also another closely related bacterial species that causes bovine tuberculosis.

    Trials with dairy calves, detailed in the April 2021 issue of the journal Vaccine, indicate the vaccine cocktail did not disappoint. In addition to rendering the young animals immune to the disease over the course of a year of monitoring, the formulation showed little to no cross-reactivity with serological tests for both Johne’s disease and bovine tuberculosis. Administering the vaccine cocktail also did not trigger blemishes at the injection site, Stabel reported—a potential benefit for animals raised for their meat and hides.

    The researchers note the need for additional efficacy trials and welcome collaboration with an industry partner to explore the patented vaccine cocktail’s commercial potential further.

    Microbiologist Judy Stabel evaluates the results of the interferon-gamma blood test to diagnose cows infected with M. avium subspecies paratuberculosis (photo by Peggy Greb).

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $17 of economic impact.