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Mr. CONDIT. We absolutely understand that. Thank you, Mr..Al- 

 lard. 



Mrs. Thurman. 



Mrs. Thurman. Mr. Goldthwait, in your testimony you talk about 

 the three areas that you are concerned about or are trying to look 

 at. And one of them you specifically spell out is rebuilding bulk 

 commodity markets. What disturbs me a little bit is that there is 

 not much discussion about the high-value products and like our 

 specialty crops, vegetables, fruits, those kinds of things which, of 

 course, are very important to the Florida exporters, and we have 

 done much of the stuff on our own. 



I would like both of you to tell us what we can be doing or why 

 that is not being emphasized by the Depgirtment and specificsdly 

 because you continue to talk about NAFTA, our folks in Florida 

 seem to think that has a negative effect on them. So it seems like 

 we need to be looking for other ways to give them some opportuni- 

 ties in this new world. 



Mr. GrOLDTHWAiT. We are, in fact, putting quite an emphasis on 

 the marketing of the high-value commodities, including specifically, 

 horticultural products. There the approach has to be a little dif- 

 ferent because these products have some very specific barriers that 

 they are encountering in most of the growth markets for them. For 

 example, on an almost daily basis, as you are undoubtedly aware, 

 we encounter trade barriers on a bilateral base, which is a number 

 of the future potential markets, including those in the Far East. So 

 we have to take a kind of a two-tiered approach. 



First of all, we have to be very vigilant in combating those bar- 

 riers every time we encounter them. And then second, and I think 

 you will see this reflected in our various program allocations, we 

 need to put promotion resources into those effbrts as well. 



I did, of course, mention the bulk commodities because that is a 

 very important area of our overall agricultural exports, but we are 

 increasingly focusing on the high-value commodities that you men- 

 tioned. 



Mr. Mendelowitz. Our assessment of the agency's programs 

 overall is that USDA has rarely employed strategic marketing in 

 its programs. When we say "strategic marketing," what we are 

 talking about is a range of practices and programs that are de- 

 signed to identify consumer needs and preferences, develop prod- 

 ucts to meet those needs and preferences, and to develop distribu- 

 tion systems to see that the products get to market. 



The emphasis of the agenQr's programs for the entire postwar pe- 

 riod has been primarily directed at production, i.e., improving effi- 

 ciency and improving output. The export programs that have been 

 employed have primarily been appended to this production-oriented 

 focus of the Department. That is, once the products are produced, 

 we then try to find ways of exporting them or finding markets for 

 them. 



We believe that at the strategic thinking level what is needed is 

 an approach to agriculture that starts out by identifying potential 

 markets and then winds up with deciding what to produce and de- 

 liver, rather than an approach that starts out with producing the 

 products and then trying to find markets for them. What we think 



