Ryan Taylor, USDA Rural Development state director, today announced $124,000 in grants to three North Dakota recipients. The funding is provided through USDA’s Value-Added Producer Grant program.
“The grant program provides capital to enable ag producers to grow their business through diversification,” said Taylor. “This support is helping to expand market opportunities and develop new products, which will increase revenue for the businesses.”
The following recipients will receive funding.
Golden Growers Cooperative: $75,000 grant. The cooperative seeks to develop new facilities for processing corn grain into higher value products. The grant will be used to conduct a feasibility study of processing corn grain into value-added products such as: gluten-free flour, specialty food additives, low calorie sweeteners, higher-value animal feed, and biochemical feedstocks.
Aspen Aquaponics (Bottineau): $25,182 grant. Aquaponics is a food production system that combines aquaculture, which mainly is raising fish, with hydroponics, which is growing vegetables and flowers, in a closed loop system. The grant will help establish the business as a year-round supplier of fresh produce. Funding will be targeted in the areas of marketing, packaging and distribution of produce.
Meadowlark Granary (Bottineau): $24,000 grant. The business produces whole wheat flour, baking kits, wholegrain breads, bread crumbs and croutons from hard red spring wheat grown on a local family farm. Meadowlark seeks to grow their customer base, increase revenue and expand production. The grant funding will be used to improve packaging and labeling, vending fees, advertising, web design and other production and marketing expenses.
Value-Added Producer Grants may be used for feasibility studies or business plans, working capital for marketing value-added agricultural products and for farm-based renewable energy projects. Value-added products are created when a producer increases the consumer value of an agricultural commodity in the production or processing stage. Further information on rural programs is available at a local USDA Rural Development office or by visiting USDA Rural Development’s web site at http://www.rd.usda.gov/nd.