Tom Vilsack Secretary of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) | Official Website
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced enhancements to resources aimed at simplifying and streamlining access to contracting information for businesses interested in selling their products and services to the USDA. These updates include new targeted contracting information on USDA.gov, improved functionality for accessing procurement opportunities, and a portal for businesses to share their capabilities with the USDA.
"Doing business with the U.S. Department of Agriculture should be straightforward, particularly for our nation's small businesses," said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small. "Unfortunately, researching and identifying relevant procurement opportunities can be extremely challenging, confusing, and time-consuming. That's why the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new tools and resources that will make it easier to contract with the USDA to serve American farmers and all of us who count on the food they grow."
These improvements are spearheaded by USDA’s Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) in collaboration with the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU). Key features include:
- A new “Contracting with USDA” site offering information, resources, and links in a Q&A format addressing commonly asked questions.
- An updated Vendor Capability Submission Portal allowing suppliers to submit their business capabilities via a web form.
- Updates to the USDA Procurement Forecast tool which now includes nearly 6,000 planned contract opportunities for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024.
“USDA has a long history of contracting with a wide variety of businesses to help us deliver our mission to the American people. In addition, we have an unwavering support for businesses, large, mid-size and small. We hope the deployed contracting resources will help even more businesses navigate the complex process of contracting with the federal government,” said Malcom Shorter, USDA Assistant Secretary for Administration.
In FY 2023, USDA obligated over $11 billion in 67,000 contract activities across various industries. The Department anticipates similar obligations in FY 2024. Contracts awarded last fiscal year included $4.9 billion in food contracts, $4.2 billion in services, $1.7 billion in Information Technology contracts, half a billion in goods contracts, and nearly half a billion in construction contracts.
The Department supports initiatives promoting equity and removing barriers to procurement opportunities. This year’s goal is awarding 57.5% or more of its contract dollars to small businesses including 27.85% to small disadvantaged businesses—efforts that garnered an A+ Rating on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s FY2023 Small Business Procurement Scorecard.
Businesses interested in contracting with USDA can visit Contracting with USDA for these resources.
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA aims at transforming America’s food system focusing on resilient local production, fairer markets for producers ensuring access to safe food communities building income streams using climate-smart practices investing infrastructure clean energy rural America committing equity systemic barriers workforce representative America.
For more information visit www.usda.gov.
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