The U.S. Dry Bean Council (USDBC) submitted the annual Unified Export Strategy (UES) for the 2022 program year to USDA/FAS. The UES is the comprehensive annual global strategy for the U.S. dry bean industry that details the market conditions, constraints, opportunities, activities, and benchmarks in current and emerging export markets.
While strategies change from year to year to reflect the current global and market specific realities, the 2022 application underwent a particularly significant rewrite. This is due to a number of global trends, including:
- The lingering impact of COVID and the desire for shelf stable healthy food.
- Increasing popularity of plant slant and plant based diets.
- A desire to eat foods that are sustainably produced.
- A growing interest in bean ingredients such as flours.
- An optimistic outlook regarding the resolution of long standing tariff disputes that have limited U.S. dry bean exports to certain markets.
The application also addresses long standing trade policy constraints, such as:
- The lack of harmonization and missing global tolerances for pesticides (MRLs), ongoing retaliatory tariffs in critical markets.
- Lack of compliance with existing trade agreements that allow zero duty.
- Zero quota imports of U.S. dry beans.
- The need to produce evidence of the U.S. dry bean industry’s sustainable farming practices.
Funding decisions and allocations will be announced in fall 2021.
