Transportation and Marketing

Description of Funded Projects

Federal-State Marketing 

Improvement Program

Fiscal Year 2017

Amount of Funds Awarded: $938,863.74

Number of Grants Awarded: 6

For more information, please visit the grant program's website:

NOTE: The below project descriptions were provided by the grant recipients.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/fsmip

California

Recipient: California Department of Food and Agriculture

Aligning Import Perspectives of Foreign Buyers with Export Training for New-to-Export Small Businesses: A focus on 

Canada and Mexico and the Consumer-Oriented Food Sector

Award Amount: $197,326.00

Many new-to-export small businesses have challenges expanding into foreign markets. While a wealth of resources is 

available to assist in export training and education, this training oftentimes misses critical elements that new-to-export small 

businesses encounter. This proposal focuses on aligning foreign buyer import perspectives with targeted training to new-toexport small businesses to address unique export market barriers that small businesses often encounter. (SBA Issue Brief 

Number 11, 2015). Overall, this proposal aims to foster new foreign markets for small businesses within the priority area of 

creating wealth and economic opportunity in rural communities (USITA, 2011) through studies on issues related to the 

marketing of value-added agricultural products.

Sacramento, CA Match Amount: $214,930.00

Project Type: Export Development Total Project Amount: $412,256.00
Hawaii

Recipient: University of Hawaii

Improving Business Knowledge & Online Marketing Presence of Maui Agri-preneurs

Award Amount: $103,404.00

The County of Maui’s Office of Economic Development sponsors the annual Made in Maui County Festival event, which 

brings together vendors who have developed agricultural value-added products with purchasers including consumers, 

wholesalers, buyers, and distributors. In order to participate, vendors must meet specific criteria, including having their 

business based in Maui County, offering products with a minimum of 51 percent of their value added in Hawaii, and locating 

their headquarters on Maui, Molokai, or Lanai. Many of these small businesses have been so focused on product 

development that they have not been able to develop the marketing side, nor to attain the knowledge and skills needed to 

expand beyond a small operation into a business with the ability to meet market demand in Hawaii, and nationally and 

internationally. This project will 1) implement and evaluate comprehensive, first (Core Four) and second-stage (Be Strategic) 

business courses, to fill the huge gap that exists in providing small business vendors with adequate knowledge and skills to be 

able to market and grow their businesses and 2) develop, enhance, and evaluate a number of individual agri-preneur small 

business websites to enhance the marketing of their products in a 24/7 marketing environment.

Honolulu, HI Match Amount: $103,920.00

Project Type: Market Development Total Project Amount: $207,324.00

Kansas

Recipient: Kansas Department of Agriculture

Reintroducing Kansas Grains to Midwest Pet Food Manufacturing and Processing Markets

Award Amount: $177,174.00

The 2016 Kansas Ag Summit convened Kansas agriculture around core growth sectors. The over 400 attendees evaluated a 

total of 19 sectors including pet food and sorghum. As the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) works to execute the 

agricultural growth opportunities identified in the summit outcome document, “Kansas Ag Growth: Grow Smarter. Grow 

Stronger. Grow Kansas,” market improvement through collaboration among growth sectors will catalyze market 

development. Each year Kansas farmers grow around 200 million bushels of sorghum. Sorghum is a hardy, water conserving 

crop adapted for Kansas climate. Sorghum is traditionally marketed into domestic and international livestock feed and 

ethanol production. While essential commodity markets, these markets have minimal opportunity to capture value added 

opportunities or attribute premiums. Furthermore, markets for sorghum farmers can be erratic and at discount value. 

Diversifying and expanding markets for sorghum will entice farmers to grow the water conserving crop and expand value 

added grain market opportunities (USDA NASS). Along with sorghum, pet food production is an important Kansas value 

added industry. With several pet food companies located in Kansas there is a need to connect local ingredients with pet food 

processing companies. Kansas State has and continues to evaluate sorghum inclusion, palatability, processing and nutritional 

properties for utilization in pet food. KDA proposes to translate this research into pet food industry evaluation, understanding 

and utilization of sorghum in pet food and pet treat product lines.

Manhattan, KS Match Amount: $201,989.40

Project Type: Market Development Total Project Amount: $379,163.40
Oregon

Recipient: Oregon Dairy Products Commission

Pacific Northwest and Inter Mountain West Artisan, Farmstead, and Specialty Cheeses (and other dairy ingredients): An 

Integrated Initiative for Global Market Development

Award Amount: $149,000.00

Global markets hold promising potential for small and medium-sized dairy processors and co-ops to enter into new 

opportunities or expand current product offerings. In fact, cheeses alone are projected to experience a 25 percent volume 

growth globally by 2021, which is the equivalent to an additional 500,000 metric tons. Natural cheeses—including artisan, 

farmstead, and specialty cheeses—are expected to be half of that projected increase (U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) 

Cheese Database). However, two key hindrances have slowed the momentum of such global market expansion efforts, which 

include: 1) USDEC does not have the capacity to provide continuous individual service for small to medium-sized natural 

cheese brands and 2) small and medium-sized dairy processors typically lack the resources and staff, limited funding, lack of 

internal expertise, market knowledge, or high shipping costs. To address these needs this project will support a pilot program 

to further the USDEC’s global dairy initiative with the western states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. 

Working as a region, this collaboration of states will provide collective access to and knowledge of the region’s small and 

medium-sized creameries as well as assist in the development of supply chain solutions through consolidated loads, and 

jointly work toward in-country promotions, and other market initiatives. The project will also enable these states to 

collectively arrange the needed support in export readiness and investment and research and explore the possibility of 

creating a central artisan cheese exchange.

Portland, OR Match Amount: $258,200.00

Project Type: Export Development Total Project Amount: $407,200.00

Tennessee

Recipient: Middle Tennessee State University

Improving the production of wild simulated ginseng in the state of Tennessee by providing outreach and certification 

services to farmers

Award Amount: $148,080.74

Ginseng is a valuable specialty crop that has significant economic importance. Currently, the world market for ginseng is over 

$2 billion per year. The wholesale value of wild ginseng roots in the United States is estimated at approximately $27 million 

per year, with an average price of $600 per dried pound of wild ginseng roots. The State of Tennessee has historically been 

among the top three States for wild ginseng production with an average yield of 10,000 pounds per year. The huge market 

demand presents an exceptional opportunity to the farmers in the State of Tennessee to increase agricultural revenues by 

growing wild simulated ginseng, which is commonly considered of similar quality and price to wild ginseng, in the well-suited 

abundant forests in Tennessee. Farmers can obtain greater than $40,000 net profit per acre per year from growing wild 

simulated ginseng as opposed to $620 per acre per year from the cash crop corn. However, there are very few forest farmers 

in Tennessee who are growing wild simulated ginseng, and they struggle to increase productivity and profitability due to lack 

of the knowledge, resources, and support. Statistics from 2006-2015 showed that most harvested ginseng roots (>95 

percent) in Tennessee were wild ginseng. For the recent consecutive 5 years 2011-2015, the harvest of wild simulated 

ginseng decreased to less than 1% of the total ginseng harvest. The goal of this project is to provide outreach and service to 

Tennessee forest plantation owners to build knowledge and resources for growing wild simulated ginseng. This project will 

also address the urgent conservation concerns for wild ginseng. Additionally, what is learned from our effort can be easily 

adapted to other ginseng-producing States and improve the profitability of ginseng production Nation-wide. This goal will be 

accomplished through five research and extension objectives in collaboration with Federal and state government regulatory 

agencies and nutraceutical companies.

Murfreesboro, TN Match Amount: $304,620.00

Project Type: Market Development Total Project Amount: $452,700.74
Recipient: The University of Tennessee

Evaluating Market Opportunities for Small Scale Distillery and Brewery Spent Grains in Tennessee

Award Amount: $163,879.00

Brewery and distillery spent grains (BDSG), a byproduct of breweries and distillers, can be utilized as a source of protein and 

fiber in livestock feed or as a soil amendment adding nitrogen and organic matter to crops. Large breweries and distillers 

have well-established marketing systems to dispose of BDSG; however, opportunities and challenges for small-scale craft 

breweries and distillers have not been systematically analyzed. Expanding market opportunities for BDSG for small-scale craft 

breweries and distillers could enhance the profitability of breweries/distillers and provide an additional source of feed for 

local livestock producers or fertilizer for local crop producers. Given the tremendous growth in the craft beer and spirit 

industries in Tennessee, collecting and distributing the growing BDSG production through alternative mechanisms (e.g., a 

coop, broker, or private contract) may improve the efficiency of transporting those BDSG to local crop/livestock producers, 

hence increasing the market potential of the byproduct. Thus, the specific objectives of the project are: (1) determine the 

existing quantity and location of BDSG produced by small-scale breweries/distillers in Tennessee (the base scenario); (2) 

determine the nutrient/energy/protein variability in BDSG from different sources/locations; (3) derive the economic profits 

of existing disposal of BDSG by small-scale breweries/distillers under the base scenario and quantify the economics of 

potential uses of BDSG in livestock feed and as a soil amendment in the region under alternative scenarios that handle and 

distribute BDSG; (4) identify the potential market boundary of the BDSG for livestock feed and for use as a soil amendment in 

Tennessee under both the base and alternative scenarios; and (5) estimate the potential economic impact on the entire 

Tennessee economy with regards to the livestock feed use and soil amendment scenarios.

Knoxville, TN Match Amount: $163,879.00

Project Type: Market Development Total Project Amount: $327,758.00