USDA's overall market development partnership with the wheat industry has added billions of dollars in returns to US farmers and ranchers.

This study closely follows the results of a recent study commissioned by US Wheat Associates (USW) showing that wheat export promotion yields profitable returns to the US economy and is a catalyst for building economic capacity overseas.

USDA conducted the study to evaluate the effects of the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) administered by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). It updates a larger study conducted in 2006 and focuses on the period from 2002 through 2009. By 2009, the report concluded, increased market development spending since 2002 increased US export market share by 1.3% and the annual value of US agricultural exports by US$6.1 billion.

Citing the President's National Export Initiative in announcing the new study results, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA is working aggressively to increase exports that benefit farmers, ranchers, and the entire US economy. ''Each US$1 billion in exports supports 8,000-9,000 jobs at home,'' he says.

The USDA study results are consistent with the conclusions of an economic analysis of wheat export promotion released in January 2010. That study showed US wheat producers received US$23 in net revenue for every US$1 they invested in export promotion between 2000 and 2007. One of the econometric models used in the study also showed that the entire wheat industry received an average of US$115 in gross revenue for every dollar invested by producers and FAS.