USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the second round of Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) grants on Dec. 19, which is intended to allocate $300 million to 67 partners once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied, expanding American food and agricultural exports in emerging global markets. This latest investment brings total RAPP funding to $600 million in 2024, USDA reports in a release.
The new grants aim to diversify export markets in regions with rising consumer demand and purchasing power, USDA explains. These regions include Africa, Latin America/the Caribbean, and South/Southeast Asia.
“RAPP is a critical tool for helping U.S. producers and agribusinesses stay competitive in today’s global trading environment,” Secretary Vilsack said in a release. “The Biden-Harris approach to trade is delivering results for U.S. agriculture through record exports and improved relationships with current and future trading partners, and this investment supports actions that build on the global demand for American agriculture’s high-quality products.”
U.S. agricultural exports have grown significantly, posting the three highest years in history in 2021, 2022 and 2023 – including a record of nearly $196 billion in 2022 and nearly $175 billion in 2023. USDA and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) have helped to secure over $26.7 billion in agricultural market access since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA notes.
“In Fiscal Year 2024, the actions of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service helped preserve $8.8 billion in total U.S. agricultural exports,” USDA wrote. “Since 2022, USDA has issued $9.4 billion in loan payment guarantees to facilitate the diversification of U.S. agricultural export markets. USDA also leveraged $2.3 billion in Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds in 2024 to help U.S. agriculture export market development efforts and combat global food insecurity.”
USDA is using $1 billion of the CCC funds to support international food assistance programs and strengthen global food security, which benefits U.S. agricultural producers.
Market Diversification and New Opportunities
This second round of funding reinforces USDA’s commitment to diversification, with a $25 million set-aside for projects focused on Africa. The first $300 million in RAPP funds, announced in May 2024, has already helped U.S. producers tap into new overseas opportunities. RAPP builds on the success of the Agricultural Trade Promotion Program (ATP), launched in 2018 to mitigate the risks of overreliance on a few large markets.
Applications for the second round of funding opened in August 2024, and USDA received proposals from agricultural trade organizations, state regional trade groups, agricultural cooperatives and state agencies. These projects will play a critical role in establishing new market opportunities and sustaining existing ones for U.S. producers.
