Because of record export growth, U.S. food processors posted a trade surplus in 1992 for the first time. The appeal of American brand names and the influence of U.S. multinational firms abroad should strengthen that position in the face of stiff world competition. U.S. firms sell in a world market where trade in processed foods exceeded $205 billion in 1990. Two dozen countries supplied 80 percent of that amount. Over half of all shipments originated in Western Europe and North America. The United States accounted for 8.5 percent of world exports of processed foods in 1990, surpassed only by France with 9.8 percent and The Netherlands with 8.9 percent.