Did you know Indiana is a major exporter of food and agricultural products?!?!? According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) the U.S. exported over $115 billion in food and agricultural products in 2008. Indiana exported $2.4 billion in food and agricultural products in 2007 and is consistently the tenth leading agricultural exporting state. The ERS further estimates the value of one in three production acres in the U.S. and Indiana to be exported to international customers.

That being said I wanted to highlight a recently opened grant by USDA called the Federal State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP) Grant in this week’s blog post. This grant will fund research projects that address barriers challenges, and opportunities in marketing, transporting, and distributing US food and agricultural products domestically and internationally. Eligible agricultural categories include livestock, livestock products, food and feed crops, fish and shellfish, horticulture, viticulture, apiary and forest products as well as processed or manufactured products derived from such commodities.

Please note that applications have to be submitted by state departments of agriculture or state agricultural experiment stations, but funds can flow through these organizations to yours. Applications are due February 10, 2010 and the average sized grant award is $50,000. And more details can be found by visiting this link; http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5081443&acct=gpfsmip