USA Rice Awarded $3M for International Promotion Activities

WASHINGTON, DC -- USA Rice has been awarded $3,050,075 in additional funding from USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) to conduct marketing and promotion activities abroad as a part of President Donald Trump’s trade mitigation programs.

Last year, Trump announced a three-tiered package to provide relief to farmers suffering from retaliatory tariffs.  One of the programs was the Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) program, a three-year, $200 million program focused on promoting U.S. products in international markets.  USA Rice submitted an application to conduct activities in more than 20 markets, augmenting and expanding current international promotion activities.

“We are extremely pleased to see these additional funds directed towards USA Rice to promote U.S. rice overseas,” said Terry Harris, chair of the USA Rice International Promotion Committee.  “Last year, USA Rice received more than $4 million through the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) programs, but we are definitely being caught in the crossfire on some international trade disputes so additional resources like the ATP funds are critical for us to keep and expand our overseas markets.  We worked hard to develop a competitive proposal that was based on input from our members and the success of previous marketing activities.”