A federal initiative to double U.S. exports over the next five years would greatly benefit Colorado agriculture, especially if the program is successful at cutting through tough trade restrictions on the state’s beef products, an agriculture undersecretary said Monday.
President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative is aimed at removing trade barriers abroad and expanding existing markets, said Darci Vetter, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services.
“We’re going to make a concerted effort to target markets where significant barriers exist to our agriculture markets,” Vetter said.
She outlined the importance of the export plan at a meeting of Colorado Department of Agriculture officials, lobbyists and local producers at the state Capitol.
Compared with the overall economy, Vetter said, U.S. agriculture is twice as reliant on overseas markets. U.S. agricultural exports — which dipped to $96.6 billion in fiscal year 2009, down from $115.3 billion in 2008 — generated an additional $135 billion in ag business in this country and supported 1 million jobs, both on and off the farm last year.
Colorado is a big player in that market, Vetter said, with 99 countries buying an estimated $1.2 billion of food and agricultural products from Colorado companies. In all, Colorado ranks fourth among all states in exports of beef and variety meats, totaling $420 million last year.
As many as 108,000 jobs statewide are in agriculture, according to the state.
However, Colorado and other beef-producing states have suffered because of restrictions placed on U.S. beef exports, officials said.
Two huge export markets — Korea and Japan — banned U.S. beef in 2003 over worries about mad cow disease.
Efforts to protect their own nations’ beef industries may be behind continued restrictions on U.S. beef, said John Stulp, Colorado commissioner of agriculture.
“These are more trade barriers rather than anything based on science,” Stulp said.
The USDA will step up negotiations with those traditionally big markets — as well as Russia and Europe — to open up more markets for farm and ranch products, Vetter said.
Another market the U.S. is eyeing is Cuba, although Vetter called relations with the communist nation “complicated.”
“But Cuba still represents a real economic opportunity for our agriculture,” she said.
The export initiative is geared toward helping all agriculture-related companies, she said. But the hope is that jobs would be created, helping small rural communities return to economic health.
She pointed to her family’s grain cleaning and processing business in Nebraska, which was able to hire more people because of a market upswing.
“Exports help maintain those jobs, and this could have a positive impact in those small towns,” Vetter said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
