As the House of Representatives’ agriculture committee takes its first steps toward next year’s farm bill reauthorization, the committee’s oversight hearings offer an opportunity for the U.S. Grains Council to educate experienced and new House members on the Council’s market development efforts and successes.

“It’s important they understand how Council member contributions effectively leverage the Foreign Market Development program (FMD) and Market Access Program (MAP) to support the maintenance and expansion of commercial exports of U.S. agricultural products and to improve the U.S. balance of trade in general,� Floyd Gaibler, USGC director of trade policy, explained.

In a statement for an April 7 hearing by the agriculture subcommittee that oversees both FMD and MAP, Council President and CEO Tom Dorr provided compelling examples of the successful use of FMD and MAP funds, including:

•Morocco, which bought no U.S. sorghum in 2009 but imported 123,000 metric tons (4.8 million bushels) of U.S. sorghum valued at $21 million in the 2010 marketing year.
•The 2011 VIV –Asia Trade Show, where Council participation generated an estimated $38,000 in on-site sales by member companies and projections that show-related sales will top $195,000 over the next 12 months.
•The Council’s world-wide promotion of distillers dried grains, which last year increased U.S. exports to 7.2 million metric tons valued at $1.4 billion.

“Independent analysis demonstrates that Council efforts last year generated almost $22 for every $1 that Council members and the federal government invested,� Gaibler said. “Increasing export demand also increased the price U.S. farmers received for their grain. Last year that meant more than $915 million in income for feed grain producers.�

The briefing statement also reviewed the Council’s historical commitment to demonstrating performance and accountability for its programs’ effects on market development and Council members. Additionally, it explored the Council’s process: making comprehensive assessments of current and potential market opportunities, determining actions to address constraints that inhibit trade and applying specific performance measures to calculate market development gains.

Educating committee members is a critical task, according to Gaibler, who noted that half of the representatives on the subcommittee were first elected to Congress last November. Of the 46 members on the full committee, more than half are either new to Congress or have never been through the farm bill reauthorization process.