The Southern United States Trade Association recently undertook a comprehensive study of agricultural lenders to assess awareness of US Department of Agriculture and other government-guaranteed export finance assistance programs. Export promotion specialists argue that federal and state government agencies have been ineffective in disseminating information on their finance programs to small- and medium-sized business. For many financial institutions, financing of exports for amounts of less than $1 million often is considered unprofitable. Most of the banks and lending institutions are uninvolved or marginally involved in trade finance.