ASI Awarded MAP, FMD Funding
ASI learned in April that it will receive nearly $550,000 as part of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service’s Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) Program.
The awards for Fiscal Year 2014 include $421,340 for MAP and $123,798 for FMD.
“This is extremely important funding for the U.S. wool industry as it continues to explore new markets. The programs are particularly effective when investigating markets that are either high-risk or developing,” said Rita Kourlis Samuelson, ASI’s director of international wool marketing.
The MAP program shares the costs of overseas marketing and promotional activities that help build commercial export markets for U.S. agricultural products and commodities. ASI uses this funding for projects such as top-combing and scouring trials, trade show participation, trade missions and reverse-trade missions.
The FMD program focuses on trade servicing and trade capacity building by helping to create, expand and maintain long-term export markets for U.S. products. This program enables U.S. exporters to provide foreign importers with wool samples.
