The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA) has released a statement lamenting President Donald Trump's fiscal year 2018 budget submission made to Congress yesterday, which included proposed cuts to key agricultural programs.

"We are very disappointed to see the President’s budget, released yesterday, call for draconian cuts, or even total elimination of programs that are important to the specialty crop sector," the SCFBA said in the statement.

"Eliminating programs that are critical to developing domestic and international markets for specialty crops, such as the Specialty Crop Block Grant program and the Market Access Program, seems to indicate a fundamental misunderstanding of what policies are needed to help specialty crop providers create their own success. 

"These programs are investments that return far more value to the economy, job market, and agriculture sector than their costs."

The alliance said it would work "vigorously" with its industry partners to make sure the Administration "understands the challenges our industry faces so that we may work together to develop policies that help, not hurt, America’s specialty crop producers".

The SCFBA is a national coalition of more than 120 specialty crop organizations representing 350 individual specialty crops.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that through the Market Access Program, its Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) partners with U.S. agricultural trade associations, cooperatives, state regional trade groups and small businesses to share the costs of overseas marketing and promotional activities.

It adds the program reaches "virtually every corner of the globe, helping to build markets for a wide variety U.S. farm and food products."

The organization also says the purpose of the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program is solely to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops, which are defined as  “fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).”

www.freshfruitportal.com