The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service has revealed that it is to allocate nearly US$11m (€8.9m) worth of funds to 96 different activities under three market development programmes, in a bid to help expand commercial markets for US agricultural exports.
According to the USDA, the funds for Fiscal 2010 were provided under the Technical Assistance for Quality Crops Programme (TASC), the Quality Samples Programme (QSP) and the Emerging Markets Programme (EMP).
Major beneficiaries of TASC allocations include Bryant Christie Inc., which takes US$225,000 for Maximum Residue Level Database funding for specialty crops, The Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association (US$389,000) for the management of the US-Canada Pesticide Harmonisation Database, and the Indian River Citrus League (US$240,000) for the development of postharvest handling practices to assure canker-free fresh citrus fruit.
Organisations gaining QSP allocations include the National Potato Marketing Board (US$440,000), the California Agricultural Export Council (US$150,000) and the Cranberry Marketing Committee (US$72,000).
Funding remains available for all three programmes, and the USDA said that it was encouraging additional applications, each of which would go through a competitive review process to evaluate its quality.
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