U.S. Department of Agriculture

Strategic Marketing Needed to Lead Agribusiness in International Trade Gao ID: RCED-91-22 January 22, 1991

GAO reviewed the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) management of marketing strategies to support its role in the changing international marketplace.

GAO found that: (1) the USDA production-oriented philosophy was not well suited for providing marketing leadership; (2) policymakers were attempting to reduce or eliminate trade barriers and create a flexible farm program to allow farmers to make planting decisions on the basis of consumer needs; (3) the United States spent significantly more on developing and promoting high-value agricultural products than most of its competitors and received less return on its marketing investment; (4) USDA lacked the proactive marketing programs and activities necessary to assist agribusiness in developing more effective marketing practices; (5) the four USDA agencies with trade management responsibilities sharply differed in strategic marketing perspectives, professional skills, and degree of interagency coordination; (6) USDA lacked a departmentwide strategic marketing plan; and (7) the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) believed that the USDA management-by-objectives system's utility would remain limited without strong top management support and improved interagency coordination.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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