USDA Investments in Meat Processing Expansion

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

The Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program provides grants to help eligible meat and poultry processors expand their capacity. This is the USDA’s effort to bolster local and regional processing. Rural Business Cooperative Service Acting Administrator Victoria Collin breaks down the types of projects and applications for funding within Phase Four of the program.

Collin… “ For this phase, we are dividing the funding equally into two separate competitions. One is our very small and small processors, and two is intermediate processors. There'll be thirty million dollars in each of those buckets. And there are two types of applications that are accepted for each of those competitions. Processing expansion projects. These awards are gonna range from fifty thousand dollars to two million, and they will support a range of activities to increase and diversify processing capacity for meat and poultry, particularly beef. Including equipment-only purchases over two hundred and fifty thousand, and necessary improvements, upgrades, renovations, retrofits to an existing facility that might be needed to install that equipment. A match requirement of fifty percent is required. The other type of application is for simplified equipment-only projects. These awards will be smaller. They will range from ten thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand for projects that only request the cost of equipment and do not include the renovation, labor, installation, or certification cost. The match requirement is only twenty-five percent.”

The USDA hopes this funding will increase processing capacity, encourage competition, and improve the resiliency of the U.S. meat and poultry supply chain.