[1][2] Often, agricultural officers of foreign embassies will form an informal group to compare notes and to collaborate on issues of mutual interest with regard to the host country.
[7][8][9] Today an "agricultural attaché" may have other responsibilities as well, related to environmental affairs, arrangement of international credit lines, or consumer protection.
As an example, under U.S. law, this dual line of authority is attested in Title 7, Chapter 87, Subchapter V of the U.S. Code and U.S. Department of Agriculture regulation DR-1051-001, in which the attachés are subordinated to the Secretary of Agriculture, and in Title 22, Chapter 52, Section 3927 of the U.S. Code, in which they are subordinated to the chief of mission.
Through regular market reports they become a link between the Ministry of Life, the foreign trade commission of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber and producers from the agriculture and food sector.
Counselors or attachés for agricultural affairs are under the authority of the chief of the economics section at the Embassy of France in the country concerned.
[20] The Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) maintain agricultural attachés in nine countries: Germany, the United States of America (also accredited to Canada), Russia (also accredited to Armenia and Uzbekistan), Italy (also an FAO representation), France, Belgium (Permanent Representation to the European Union), Spain, China, and Romania.
MARD encourages submission of attaché reports that contribute significantly to the decisions of farmers and their organizations as well as other actors in the agricultural sector and the food industry.
MARD has published a monthly Newsletter (Külhoni Hírlevél) compiled from open information in the reports since 2004.
According to the ministry, the service's officers "are trained to assist Dutch agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises in their activities on foreign markets.
[23] The Russian Ministry of Agriculture's Federal Center for Development of Exports of the Agroindustrial Complex's Products (Russian: Федеральный центр развития экспорта продукции АПК Минсельхоза России) administers Russia's agricultural attaché service.
[25][26] As of 2020 Russia had posted "agroindustrial" attachés to Algeria, Angola, Chile, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.