Assisting Specialty Crop Exports

 

ASCE addresses barriers unique to specialty crops exports. It supports projects that advance U.S. specialty crop exports by expanding domestic understanding of foreign food safety systems and foreign understanding of U.S. food safety systems. The initiative will also collect information needed for export certification, and packaging to meet other countries' new requirements.

Active 10.621 Foreign Agricultural Service, Department of Agriculture B - Project Grants Not applicable. Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act, Section 5(f), 15 U.S.C. 714c(f) State agricultural experiment stations, State cooperative extension services, all colleges and universities, other research or education institutions and organizations, Federal and private agencies and organizations, individuals, and any other organization, whether foreign or domestic. n.b. Individual Notices of Funding Opportunity may be made available to a subset of these organizations. Activities supported through this program generally benefit producers of exported agricultural commodities in the United States. ASCE is especially targeted towards benefiting specialty crops which lack the existing expertise or capacity to export in compliance with the myriad of standards that exists in each potential market. Not applicable. Preapplication coordination is not applicable. 2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards applies to this program. Each Notice of Funding Opportunity will specify objectives and parameters for a particular project; generally, NOFOs will not provide an opportunity for applicants to propose their own objectives. Applications should be submitted as directed in each NOFO. Generally, although NOFOs are posted to grants.gov, applications are not accepted through the grants.gov portal. USDA/FAS will convene a review panel, which may include both federal and non-federal reviewers, to review eligible applications. The reviewers will ensure that the applicant is capable of delivering the programs/activities as described in the announcement based on the applicant's project narrative and assign a score and provide summary comments. The review panel will make a recommendation list to the selecting official (generally, the Director or Senior Director for the cognizant operating group), who is not a member of the panel. The selecting official may select applications out of rank order in consideration of strategic program priorities, such as geographical distribution, incorporation of minority-serving institutions, or congressional directive. Selection determinations are final and cannot be appealed. Prior to selection, the agency may contact the highest-ranking applicants to seek clarification and to negotiate technical and programmatic aspects of the application. If an application includes a subaward, FAS may request to speak with all parties included in the application to ensure sufficient planning and coordination has taken place prior to making an award. Contact the headquarters or regional location, as appropriate for application deadlines From 30 to 60 days. Not applicable. Not applicable. Applicants will be evaluated on the extent and quality to which they demonstrate that they have the capabilities, staff, resources, and equipment to successfully perform the project. Scoring will also be based on the level of detail and how clearly the applicant's capacities to address these factors are outlined in the proposal. Selection factors will be described in individual NOFOs, but generally include Technical Expertise and Experience, Overall Program Plan, Cost Effectiveness, and Quality of Submission. Awards may support reasonable and necessary costs appropriate for the projects being undertaken, which will vary from project to project, but may include (for example) personal compensation for technical experts; travel and subsistence expenses for participants; materials and supplies; consumables; equipment; etc. Each project scope will necessarily differ, but may commonly include market research, training workshops, and data collection. Each Notice of Funding Opportunity will specify project-specific goals, which will vary from project to project, but are intended when working in concert to address and overcome barriers to specialty crop exports. Not applicable. Not applicable. Grant records shall be retained for a period of 3 years from the day the recipient submits its final expenditure report. If any litigation, claim, negotiation, audit, or other action involving the records has been started before the expiration of the 3-year period, the records must be retained until completion of the action and resolution of all issues which arise from it, or until the end of the regular 3-year period, whichever is later. Grant records include financial and program/progress reports, support documents, statistical records, and other documents that support the activity and/or expenditure of the recipient or subrecipient under the award. Statutory formula is not applicable to this assistance listing.

Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. Individual awards can range from 3 months to 5 years; extensions may be available under certain circumstances, except that in no case can an award exceed 5 years including extensions. Method of awarding/releasing assistance: Quarterly. Prospective applicants and beneficiaries wishing to recommend a particular subject, commodity, trade barrier, or policy for a project under ASCE, should prepare a brief statement (not exceeding 500 words) identifying the commodity, the targeted market(s), a description of the issue that is hindering efforts to export that commodity to that market, and an analysis of how an ASCE-supported project could address that. The agency will consider all such recommendations, but does not guarantee a project will result. Entities submitting such recommendations are not required to have the capacity to undertake such a project themselves; the agency will identify one or more suitable implementing organizations for each project. Betsy Baysinger
1400 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20250 USA
betsy.baysinger@usda.gov
Phone: 2027201667 12-0115-0-3-351 (Project Grants) FY 23$0.00; FY 24 est $3,000,000.00; FY 25 est $3,000,000.00; - (Cooperative Agreements) FY 23$0.00; FY 24 est $9,000,000.00; FY 25 est $9,000,000.00; - Awards range between $10,000 and $5,000,000, depending on the nature of a particular activity. Individual Notices of Funding Opportunity will indicate a more specific value range for each activity. Not applicable. Not applicable.