USDA Announces Funding for International Trade and Food Aid

On October 24^th, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a new investment of $2.3 billion to help American producers and help bolster international food aid.  The move is consistent with a bipartisan request from the Senate Committee on Agriculture to utilize funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to address challenges related to trade and food insecurity impacting U.S. farmers and the international community. USDA has estimated that the FY23 agricultural trade deficit will be $19 billion and will grow to $27.5 billion in FY24. USDA also estimates that globally 205 million people need life-saving food assistance, and 768 million people face chronic hunger. To better address these issues USDA is investing $1.3 billion for the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program and support for specialty crop industries to diversify export markets and $1 billion to help address global hunger. GCCA welcomes these investments and is continuing to press for inclusion of the FRIDGE Act in the upcoming Farm Bill to further enhance USDA’s trade programs by adding a focus on building cold chain capacity in developing markets.