USDA Rural Development State Director Colleen Landkamer today announced that USDA is providing more than $1.5 million to help farmers, ranchers, small businesses and entrepreneurs nationwide develop new product lines.
“These grants provide a much-needed source of financing to help producers develop new product lines and increase their income, and keep that income in their communities,” Landkamer said. “Small business entrepreneurship, which Value-Added Producer Grants support, is one of several programs USDA provides to help further the development of rural America.”
VAPG grants can be used to develop new product lines from raw agricultural products or promote additional uses for established products. Veterans, socially-disadvantaged groups, beginning farmers and ranchers, operators of small- and medium-sized family farms and ranches, and farmer and rancher cooperatives are given special priority.
For example, Leech Lake Band of Chippewa was awarded a $250,000 value-added grant to further develop sales of wild rice that the Band has produced and sold for decades. Funding will also go towards expansion of sales and marketing to an online presence that will target distribution to new profitable market segments.
Another Minnesota recipient, RB’s Organic Pelletizing, LLC, an organic feed producer, is receiving a $250,000 grant for working capital to combine low-quality forage with feed by-products to produce premium certified organic feed and market to the dairy industry.
In Alexandria, Minn., Country Blossom Farm, LLC is receiving a $250,000 grant to increase production and sales of gourmet fruit pies, crisps and caramel apples using fruit produced on the farm. These products will expand the farm’s operation at farmers markets and at its own farm bakery retail store.
Independent producer, Mark Lange, has been selected for a $15,000 grant to conduct a feasibility study assessing local marketing of fluid milk and butter for local retail sale.
U.S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced last month that Rural Development is providing more than $45 million to help 326 rural small businesses and entrepreneurs, farmers, and ranchers nationwide develop new product lines through the Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program, including Minnesota.
USDA has awarded 41 VAPG awards throughout Minnesota since 2009, totaling $7.4 million. Congress increased funding for the program in the 2014 Farm Bill. The grants are a key element of USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative, which coordinates the Department's work on local and regional food systems. Secretary Vilsack has identified local and regional food systems as a key component of rural economic development.
This funding builds on USDA’s historic investments in rural America over the past seven years. USDA has worked to strengthen and support rural communities and American agriculture, an industry that supports one in 11 American jobs, provides American consumers with more than 80 percent of the food we consume, ensures that Americans spend less of their paychecks at the grocery store than most people in other countries, and supports markets for homegrown renewable energy and materials.
For more information on USDA Rural Development programs, visit www.rd.usda.gov/mn and contact your local area office.