Food Supply Chain Loans
There is another tool for poultry and meat producers to expand their businesses and decrease their reliance on just a few processors.
Through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program, USDA will partner with lenders to guarantee loans of up to $40 million to help expand meat and poultry processing capacity and finance other food supply chain infrastructure.
Cooperatives, corporations, for-profits, nonprofits, Tribal communities, public bodies, and people in rural and urban areas may apply.
The Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program is, run by Rural Business-Cooperative Services. Administrator Karama Neal:
NEAL: “USDA might guarantee a loan for a group of producers, cattle producers, pork producers, poultry for example who have formed a cooperative to better control access and to brand their products and garner premium value for their products. The guaranteed loans could finance equipment for a mid-sized facility or expansion of production capacity, additional product lines, upgrading consumer packaging, or value-added post-processing. There are a number of different kinds of things. The program could guarantee a loan for a food hub, seeking to expand its operation by adding additional cold storage facilities. It is quite broad.”
Neal emphasized the program’s broad reach is designed to support the whole food supply chain.
Producers can apply for the food supply chain loans online only by going to the USDA’s website at www.usda.gov.
