FruSur, a major packing company provides advice on pest control and quality issues, and ProChile, the government's export arm, holds seminars, publishes brochures, and helps the sector to identify new overseas markets. Importers and wholesalers from consuming countries also have helped in the areas of product development and certification. Acreage is expanding for the export market, whereas domestic demand is expected to remain low, at least in the short term. One challenge to further expansion faced by farmers is the lack of on-farm fertilizer which instead must be hauled long distances at great cost. The project involved a range of production initiatives including food crops for home consumption, cash crops for the domestic market, and organic sesame and organic cotton production for the export market.
Cotton is Uganda's second major export crop after coffee.
An important aspect of the project was to assure that all participants in the production and marketing chain receive a 'fair' price, and that the producer receives as full a benefit as possible from the organic price premium. See complete report. On October 1, Agriculture Secretary Glickman announced the opening of a new export outreach office to serve the southeast states of Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. FAS already has export outreach offices in Des Moines, IA, Portland, OR, Sacramento, CA, and plans to open another office soon in Dallas, Texas. On October 7, Agriculture Secretary Glickman announced plans to create a Council on Small Farms and a new office at USDA to deal specifically with small farm issues.