Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) payments

On April 17, 2020, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), a new program to assist producers and consumers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (USDA 2020b). CFAP will provide $19 billion in relief to producers and entities throughout the supply chain. This will be done through two programs, Direct Support to Farmers and Ranchers ($16 billion) and USDA Purchase and Distribution ($3 billion) (USDA 2020a). Producers will be paid on actual losses due to decreases in prices and/or disruption of supply chains. On May 19, 2020 USDA announced the details of the CFAP. There are three support payments for producers affected by the pandemic: euthanasia and disposal support1, support from the CARES Act, and support from Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) payments