Market Segmentation: Identifying the High-Growth Export Markets for U.S. Agriculture

A cluster analysis based on a five-year growth rate of agricultural impmta from the United States was conducted on 86 countries and revealed two significant market segments for U.S. agriculture the high-growth markets and the low-growth markets. Multiple discriminant analysis was then used to test the significance of the countries ’ trad~related and macroecon-omic variables to their market growth classification. The discriminant function was used to predict the high-growth markets for U.S. agriculture in 1994. High-growth marke @ for U.S. agriculture exhibit faster GDP and agricultural import growth rates, are relatively agriculturally self-sufficient, and are near the United States. On the other hand, low-growth markets exhibit slower GDP and agricultural import growth rates, and are geographically distant from the United States. Key wor~: market segmentation, target marketing, market assessment, agricultural exporta, international marketin