U.S. Department of Agriculture

Recognizing the usefulness of trade shows, many countries, including the United States, use them to promote exports of their consumer-oriented agricultural products--basically finished goods needing little or no additional processing, such as fruits, nuts, milk, and chocolate. During the 1980s, world exports of these products rose from $92 billion to $149 billion, or more than half of all world agricultural exports by 1989. This report assesses the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) trade show program. GAO discusses (1) the trade show program's role in promoting U.S. agricultural exports, (2) USDA's program management, (3) USDA's subsidizing of trade show exhibitors, and (4) USDA's program evaluation.

GAO found that: (1) the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has not defined the trade show program's role in promoting U.S. exports or determined how the program's contribution to its overall market development strategy; (2) the program lacks measurable objectives for recruiting exhibitors, deciding what types of products to promote, and selecting which international shows to participate in or where to sponsor a U.S. show; (3) although other countries' export promotion agencies sponsor or participate in many more trade shows than FAS does, FAS promotes consumer-oriented agricultural products in a variety of other ways; (4) the FAS High Value Products Services Division (HVPSD) administers the trade show program, but unlike the centralized approach of the major European countries, FAS overseas posts manage most trade-show-related activities; (5) HVPSD lacks the resources to adequately prepare exhibitors to participate effectively in trade shows; (6) HVPSD has not developed uniform policies regarding pavilion design and construction or FAS promotion of its services at trade shows; (7) European countries' trade show programs frequently obtain subsidies through industry assessments, while the United States subsidizes its exhibitors more heavily through government revenues; (8) charging a higher exhibitor fee for FAS trade shows does not appear to have a negative effect on experienced exporters, but it discourages new-to-export exhibitors; and (9) although FAS has expanded its evaluation efforts, weaknesses in questionnaire design and collection procedures affect data quality and reliability.

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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