News

USMEF praises House introduced Agriculture Export Promotion Act

The president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation says the Agriculture Export Promotion Act, recently introduced in the U.S. House, would help ensure farmers remain competitive in the global marketplace.

Dan Halstrom tells Brownfield, “Our foreign competitors realize the benefits of exports,” he said, “whether it’s the EU on the pork side, Australia on the beef side, or markets like China that have gotten very aggressive recently.”

He says the bill would increase funding for the USDA’s Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development Program (FMD).

“We’re going to be somewhere between $19.5-to-$20 billion in exports for beef and pork,” Halstrom said. “I’ll tell you right now that if it wasn’t for the MAP and FMD programs, we wouldn’t have had this level of success.”

Halstrom says the legislation would also help improve food security and support the rural economy.

The bill was recently introduced by Republicans Ashley Hinson (IA), Dan Newhouse (WA), Tracey Mann (KS), and Brad Finstad (MN), as well as Democrats Jimmy Panetta (CA), Jim Costa (CA), Kim Schrier (WA), and Chellie Pingree (ME).