USDA Trade & Specialty Crops Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. Here in the Northwest, we grow a wide variety of crops, well known for our long list of specialty crops.
And, Alexis Taylor, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Agricultural Affairs, says many of our specialty crops are in high demand across the Pacific …
TAYLOR … “You know, we see a lot of changing dynamics in Asia, in particular Southeast Asia where we see young populations, growing middle classes and that is ripe for us to, no pun intended, really be able to capitalize on some of the high-value tree fruit crops we produce in the Pacific Northwest.”
So, Taylor says USDA wants to help get those crops to those markets …
TAYLOR … “You know, one of the things we just launched is the Specialty Crops Competitiveness Initiative. We want to be able to focus on some of the unique challenges that our specialty crop sector are experiencing.”
The former Oregon Director of Agriculture says the initiative could be a real boost for specialty crops …
TAYLOR … “One of the things, as part of that initiative and some additional announcements around market development that we’ve recently announced is we’re targeting $100-million to help our specialty crops sector address some of the unique barriers to trade that they have in markets around the world and we’re really pleased to be able to partner with the industry and roll out those dollars to support their ability to identify priority markets, identify the barriers, knock those down and get our products on the grocery store shelves.”
The initiative aims to build new, more and better markets for American farmers.
