Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) said it was granted $1,121,789 through its partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Market Access Program (MAP) to promote American spirits exports in 2022, a nearly 100% increase over 2021 funding levels.
“DISCUS’ export promotion program continues to drive big results for U.S. distillers and has been incredibly beneficial for small craft distillers looking to expand into foreign markets,” said Charles McEntee, DISCUS Director of Export Promotion. “Since 2014, DISCUS’ MAP activities have directly resulted in nearly $6 million in new exports for craft distillers across the United States.”
McEntee stated that total exports resulting directly from DISCUS export promotion activities increased from $625,000 between July 2019-June 2020 to $1,224,000 between July 2020-June 2021.
DISCUS began participating in the program in 2006 and has conducted spirits promotions in cooperation with USDA in 20 foreign markets. Since that time, total U.S. spirits exports increased by nearly 66%, from $831 million in 2006 to $1.4 billion in 2020.
This past year, DISCUS conducted MAP trade promotions in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Taiwan and the UK. As part of last year’s MAP program, DISCUS conducted a series of mobile and virtual tasting tours showcasing American spirits. More than 300 members of the hospitality sector and media in key export markets registered and received tasting kits containing samples and informational booklets (English and translated) of U.S. distilleries looking to enter or expand into local markets.
“USDA officials advised that this significant increase in funding is a testament to the great work of the DISCUS Export Promotion team, which was able to pivot and come up with very creative ways to continue to promote U.S. distilled spirits exports despite the tremendous challenges during the pandemic,” said Christine LoCascio, DISCUS Chief of Public Policy. “The MAP program is a great example of how public-private partnerships can support the growth of small businesses across the United States.”
In addition to MAP, DISCUS still has funding available from the $1,215,000 grant it received in 2019 under USDA’s Agriculture Trade Program (ATP), which was set up specifically to assist those agricultural groups that are being adversely impacted by retaliatory tariffs. The ATP program expires in 2024 and the remainder of the funding will be used to supplement DISCUS’ MAP allocation.