2026 America First Trade Promotion Program
Grant Opportunity Analysis
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) has announced the 2026 America First Trade Promotion Program, which offers $285 million in funding across 60 awards to support the expansion of U.S. agricultural exports. Eligible applicants include nonprofit U.S. agricultural trade organizations, state regional trade groups, agricultural cooperatives, and U.S. state agencies, all of which must be registered with SAM.gov and are required to provide cost-sharing for their proposed activities. This program aims to enhance the marketing and promotion of U.S. agricultural commodities, excluding tobacco, and emphasizes innovative approaches and broad producer representation in the applications. Interested parties must submit their applications, including a detailed marketing plan, by January 23, 2026, at 5:00 PM ET through the Unified Export Strategy (UES) system; for further inquiries, contact Curt Alt at curt.alt@usda.gov or 202-690-4784.
Eligible Applicants
Applicants must be either a nonprofit U.S. agricultural trade organization that promotes the export and sale of one or more United States agricultural commodities, an SRTG, a U.S.agricultural cooperative, or a U.S. state agency.Organizations that have not previously participated in a USDA market development program are encouraged to consider applying to this opportunity, and traditional USDA market development program recipients are encouraged to use this opportunity to propose new and innovative activities in non-traditional markets to generate increased export sales for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and producers. Organizations already operating trade promotion activities with USDA funding in the Target Market for the promoted commodity cannot receive all available points for “Innovation and Originality” in the Review Criteria.All applicants must have an active registration in the U.S. Government System for AwardManagement (www.sam.gov) before the application submission deadline of the announcement.Applicants with inactive, expired, pending, or excluded listings will be deemed ineligible.Exceptions, waivers, or extensions will not be considered. More information about SAM.govregistration can be found in Section 9, Other Information