As the Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service, I welcome you to our Web site. Here you can find out how our agency works both in Washington and in our 97 offices overseas, to encourage greater exports of U.S. agricultural products. At FAS we constantly focus on overseas market signals and adapt our practices and procedures to meet the demands of customers around the world. We work to break down trade barriers that limit our capacity to export, such as the imposition of sanitary and phytosanitary barriers that are not in accord with international standards or science-based. We also play a vital role in international food aid and development programs. Our McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program helps promote education, child development, and food security for some of the world’s poorest children. And our agriculture advisers are helping to rebuild the agriculture sectors in Afghanistan and Iraq.

FAS offers a dynamic Web site that is continually evolving. The site incorporates more than 60,000 documents and receives approximately 32,000 visitors each weekday. On our Web site visitors can access important market information immediately from export sales reports to international production, export and import data. In addition, it is possible to apply for many of our market development programs through our Unified Export Strategy online application system. Our General Sales Manager Online System enables U.S. exporters and U.S. banks to submit required documentation online for our export credit programs. We also have information about applying for a grant under one of our international food assistance programs.

Because FAS has agricultural economists, attachés, and experienced local staff in embassies around the world, our Web site offers a unique window on the international agricultural economy. Reports from our overseas posts are available in a searchable database and offer information on everything from changes in import requirements in a specific country to market intelligence reports that provide invaluable information to U.S. exporters.

I hope you will find our Web site useful and that you will come back often. Our objective will continue to be to improve government transparency, participation, and collaboration.

Michael V. Michener
Administrator, Foreign Agricultural Service