WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture hearing, U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp reinforced the importance of maintaining and strengthening U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs that support North Dakota farmers and ranchers, whose bottom lines depend on export opportunities.

Heitkamp underscored how USDA programs she fought for in the Farm Bill help North Dakota producers—including the Market Access Program, which provides $200 million each year to market and promote U.S. agricultural exports abroad, and the Foreign Market Development Program, which provides $38.5 million each year to create, maintain and expand U.S. farmers’ and ranchers’ access to foreign markets. Heitkamp also echoed points made by Eric Halverson, a potato farmer and CEO of Black Gold Farms in Grand Forks, who testified at the hearing.

Those USDA export promotion programs have a high rate of return, according to a 2016 USDA study, with U.S. food and agricultural export value increasing $24 for every dollar invested by the government and industry in export market development from 2002 to 2014.

“We can’t be successful in agriculture in the current farm economy without trade—and I reinforced that point at this U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture hearing,” said Heitkamp. “That same point was made during testimony from North Dakota farmer Eric Halverson, a potato grower who leads Black Gold Farms in Grand Forks. Farmers and ranchers like Eric understand how vital trade is—and that key USDA programs promote trade relationships our farmers depend on. As we gear up for the next Farm Bill, I’ll fight to defend those export promotion and market access programs—particularly as the administration proposes cuts to export promotion programs in the budget, just when farmers and ranchers need them most to make ends meet amid drought and a tough farm economy.”

North Dakota is the 9^th largest agriculture exporting state in the U.S., with about $4.1 billion in commodities sold abroad each year. Almost a quarter of North Dakota workers are farmers or ranchers, or work in farm-related jobs—and according to USDA, North Dakota agricultural exports support about 27,000 jobs, reinforcing the importance of expanding exports. 

On her two-day, state-wide Farm Bill tour last year, where she began laying the groundwork for the next Farm Bill, Heitkamp met with bean growers at Central Valley Bean Co-op in Buxton to discuss how programs she fought for in the 2014 Farm Bill have boosted U.S. agricultural exports. Heitkamp spoke with bean growers about maintaining and possibly expanding those export promotion programs in the 2018 Farm Bill, while highlighting her efforts to expand U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba, which has a high demand for beans and other North Dakota crops.

Earlier this year, Heitkamp reintroduced her bipartisan bill to support farmers and American jobs by lifting restrictions on U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba. The biggest barrier North Dakota farmers face as they seek access to Cuba—a market with high demand for the state’s crops—is a prohibition on providing private credit for those exports. Heitkamp and Republican Senator John Boozman of Arkansas first introduced their bipartisan bill to lift the ban on private banks and companies offering credit for agricultural exports to Cuba in April 2015. 

While she was on the President’s historic trip to Cuba last year, Heitkamp announced that she successfully pressed USDA to allow national checkoff funds – which promote U.S. agricultural products like soybeans, beef and honey – to market American products in Cuba.