Wine Institute Applauds USDA Announcement of Export Promotion Funding Program

Wine Institute welcomed news today from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that it was launching the Regional Agriculture Promotion Program (RAPP) with $1.3 billion in funding. This critical funding will be used to grow U.S. agricultural exports including California wine. The program will be modeled on the existing USDA Market Access Program and Agricultural Trade Promotion Program, both of which Wine Institute utilized to develop California’s expansion of international wine exports.

According to USDA, RAPP will help expand existing markets and develop new markets for agricultural commodities and specialty crops. Wine Institute intends to use funding from RAPP to continue expanding global marketing activities. The global wine trade is still working to recover from the pandemic and some wine markets have seen flat to declining growth. At the same time, the playing field is tilted heavily against U.S. producers in many of the fastest growing developing wine markets where foreign competitors have gained preferential market access through trade agreements. Wine Institute President and CEO Robert P. Koch made a supportive statement regarding the funding and announcement.