75 



Strategic planning is especially important in light of USDA's 

 budget pressures. Over the past several years, the Foreign 

 Agricultural Service (FAS), the agency that performs USDA's export 

 promotion activities, has faced increasing program responsibilities 

 without commensurate increases in budgets or staff. In view of 

 these pressures, any market-based strategic plan must set 

 priorities for its resources and focus them where they are likely 

 to do the most good. 



CHANGES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS, STAFF CAPABILITIES, AND FOREIGN 

 SERVICE POSTINGS NEEDED TO ADAPT TO A MARKET-ORIENTED STRATEGY 



If USDA is to move toward a more market-oriented export strategy, 

 changes will be needed in FAS' approach to information gathering, 

 personnel policies, and resource allocation. 



FAS maintains a worldwide reporting system that gathers information 

 on agricultural commodities overseas. Despite some recent changes, 

 the reporting system remains fundamentally oriented toward 

 agricultural production. Information gathering under a strategic 

 marketing approach would concentrate more on providing U.S. 

 agricultural producers and distributors with data on consumer 

 demand and market potential. For example, in a recent report 4 we 

 found that many U.S. exporters to East Asian markets desired more 



*See High Value Product Exports: Good Potential Exists for More 

 Trade With Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia (GAO/GGD-94-52 , Nov. 

 19, 1993). 



