A data set that predicts a high return on investment in agricultural export sector development.

Through their checkoff contributions, Kansas farmers cultivate more than just crops. According to a new econometric study by IHS Markit and Texas A&M University, spending those dollars cultivating export markets directly benefits wheat growers and the overall US economy. 

 

Researchers concluded that between 1977 and 2019, two export programmes, the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD), added an average of $9.6 billion per year to export value. This is fantastic news for Kansas wheat farmers, as roughly half of the state’s wheat crop is exported each year.

 

Investment in the development of export markets begins at the combine. The Kansas Wheat Commission is supported by a voluntary assessment of two cents per bushel on each bushel of wheat grown in Kansas and sold to a Kansas grain elevator. As a contributing member of U.S. Wheat Associates, the Kansas Wheat Commission invests those funds in agronomic research projects, consumer outreach, and agricultural export market development (USW).

 

Wheat is the most reliant on trade of the major food and feed crops grown in the United States. Individual farming operations, on the other hand, are unable to effectively market wheat overseas. USW combines funds from 17 state wheat commissions with federal funds from the MAP and FMD programmes to market U.S. wheat, including Kansas hard red winter (HRW), to customers worldwide. Staff and consultants from USW add expertise in how to best use the various classes and qualities of US wheat for end-products ranging from loaves of bread to instant noodles to pasta and more. USW also works to remove trade or technical barriers that prevent wheat from reaching global markets.