WASHINGTON, June 9, 2023 – Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announces the deployment of a tool to assist industry and small disadvantaged entities in identifying potential opportunities for selling their products and services to USDA.
USDA's Procurement Forecast lists the types of anticipated solicitations that small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned businesses, HUBZone businesses, service-disabled veterans, and other businesses may be able to participate in contracts with USDA, or through subcontracting opportunities. USDA's Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) and Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) collaborated in the development of the tool.
“USDA values the contributions of small business entities and continues to champion initiatives to make contracting opportunities more accessible to eligible firms, as well as remove barriers faced by underserved individuals and communities,” said OCP Director Donald Baker. “The release of this procurement tool will enhance competition in contracting for those interested in supplying goods and services to the Department.”
USDA has eleven organizations that issue solicitations for anticipated purchases tied to the procurement forecast. The solicitations listed within the forecast are all over the simplified acquisition threshold. Using the tool, interested parties can search USDA's procurement forecasts, filter the results, manipulate the display (sort, hide, move, and freeze columns), and download the results in Excel or CSV. Currently, forecast data for FY 2023 to 2025 is available.
This collaborative effort complies with Public Law 100-656, the Business Opportunity Development Reform Act of 1988, which amended the Small Business Act to place new emphasis on acquisition planning. The law requires agencies to compile and make available small business contracting opportunities.
“We are increasing our efforts to provide useful information, tools, resources, and the opportunity to engage with small, disadvantaged businesses across the country. We are meeting small businesses where they are, with our road shows, thereby providing maximum opportunity for them to participate in the USDA procurement process,” said OSDBU Director George A. Sears.
Until now, businesses were limited to accessing procurement opportunities through the federal-wide System for Award Management (SAM).
“Not only does this new tool maximizes opportunities to participate in USDA’s contracting process, but it also provides greater transparency, increases accuracy, adds additional data fields, and allows for more frequent updates to the data,” said Sears.
To learn more about the Forecast of Business Opportunities | USDA and search for anticipated procurements, please visit usda.gov/procurement-forecast.
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