U.S. farmers and livestock producers know export markets are a valuable component of the larger demand picture for their crops and livestock. According to USDA, U.S. agricultural exports were a record-high $196.4 billion in fiscal year 2022, and supported about 1.2 million jobs.

Building that demand is a task for organizations like U.S. Wheat Associates, U.S. Meat Export Federation, U.S. Grains Council and more. Every year those entities leverage Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development funds awarded by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service to do that. This year, FAS awarded $175.6 million in MAP funds and $27.1 million in FMD funds for fiscal year 2023.

“In this unique public-private partnership, USDA and the American agricultural industry are working together to expand markets for high-quality, American-made farm and food products worldwide,” said FAS Administrator Daniel Whitley in a press release. “With industry matching funds, federal investments in these market development programs not only increase agricultural export revenue and volume, but also improve farm income and strengthen the U.S. economy.”

MAP funds are used to support U.S. producers’ marketing and promotion activities around the world. Those can include conducting market research, providing technical assistance and supporting participation in trade fairs and exhibits. According to FAS, on average, for every $1 awarded in MAP funds, there is a $2.50 match in contributions from the average participating entity.

FMD funds are used to support generic promotion of U.S. commodities. It’s a way to promote the commodity as a whole, rather than a specific branded product. Organizations, on average, also match every $1 in federal FMD funds with $2.50 in contributions.

U.S. Wheat Associates, for example, represents wheat farmers in overseas markets and has staff around the globe who work to not only develop markets for American wheat, but keep an eye out for future hot spots for U.S. wheat demand.

U.S. Wheat leverages its FMD and MAP funds to educate foreign buyers about how they can benefit from using higher-quality U.S. wheat, provide foreign buyers technical assistance and promote U.S. wheat overseas. U.S. Wheat reports that a 2015 analysis showed that for every $1 invested in export promotion, U.S. wheat farmers received $45 in net revenue.

According to FAS, a recent study conducted by IHS Markit, with Gary Williams and Oral Capps of Texas A&M University, showed that the investment of FMD and MAP funds contributed $45 billion every year in economic output and $22.3 billion every year in gross domestic product. That’s creating U.S. jobs and increasing farm cash receipts, according to FAS.

Among the list of fiscal year 2023 awardees were:

A full list of fiscal year 2023 MAP funding recipients is available on the fiscal year 2023 MAP Funding Allocations page. The FMD Funding Allocations fiscal year 2023 page contains a full list of the FMD funding recipients for FY 2023.

USDA FAS and U.S. Wheat Associates contributed to this article.