AUGUSTA — Trustees of the Eastern United States Agricultural and Food Export Council have elected Edward J. McLaughlin as president. McLaughlin is commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources.

EUSAFEC is a private, not-for-profit international trade development organization based in Harrisburg, Pa. It represents states from Delaware to Maine, including New York and Pennsylvania.

McLaughlin said that export opportunities will not come at the expense of local and domestic markets but will augment them. Export economies are growing at a rate of more than 10 percent a year in the New England region.