DtC Compliance: Last Call!
WineAmerica’s Zoom listening session on Direct-to-Consumer shipping compliance takes place next Wednesday, July 19 at 3 pm for WineAmerica members, who may register here. Non Members may join here and learn from it as well.
FAS Visits FLX
This week we were pleased to welcome some 25 representatives of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service to Fox Run Vineyards in New York’s Finger Lakes Region—the FAS in FLX!
Led by Trade Policy Expert Ben Henderson, the group included Agricultural Policy and Marketing Specialists from many countries in Asia (China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam), Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden), the Middle East and South Asia (Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates), and several others. They work at embassies responsible for promoting U.S. agricultural products, and spent this week visiting various agricultural producers in the Northeast, as well as Cornell University.
Fox Run, a leading New York winery, was the first stop, and a logical one, given that it has long been part of the FAS-funded Market Access program (MAP) that promotes U.S. exports. In addition, co-owner Scott Osborn is the current Vice Chair of WineAmerica, which is actively advocating for more funding for the MAP program in the Farm Bill. I highlighted WineAmerica’s strong advocacy for increased funding for MAP.
About 20 years ago when I was President of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, we used the MAP program to create the first-ever export program for New York wines, and it is no exaggeration to say there would be virtually no New York wines exported without this support. My successor, Executive Director Sam Filler, and his team have done an excellent job building the program even further, as he described to the FAS delegation in conjunction with two winery representatives who have directly benefited from the program.
The half day spent at Fox Run gave our friends at FAS a clear sense of what it takes to grow grapes, make wine, and market it successfully, from the tasting room to export markets. We are grateful that they took the time to learn, and look forward to working with them to promote U.S. wines overseas.
