Washington—US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Thursday announced that USDA is deploying $100 million under the new Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program to make available nearly $1 billion in loan guarantees.
These loan guarantees will back private investment in processing and food supply infrastructure that will strengthen the food supply chain.
Through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program, USDA will partner with lenders to guarantee loans of up to $40 million to help eligible entities expand meat and poultry processing capacity and finance other food supply chain infrastructure.
Lenders may provide the loans to eligible cooperatives, corporations, for profits, nonprofits, tribal communities, public bodies and people in rural and urban areas.
USDA Rural Development (RD) will administer the loans. Funding may be used to startup or expand food supply chain activities such as aggregating, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling or distributing food; address supply chain bottlenecks; increase capacity and help create a more resilient, diverse and secure US food supply chain.
USDA is making the funding available through the American Rescue Plan Act. The program is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to address food system challenges dating back decades and further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
These investments will help essential processing and supply chain infrastructure that will ultimately deliver more opportunities and fairer prices for farmers, they will give people greater access to healthier foods, and they will help eliminate bottlenecks in the food supply chain, USDA said.
USDA is accepting electronic applications from lenders through the Food Supply Chain Online Application System until funds are expended.
Paper applications will not be accepted. To access the online application system, lenders must submit a request to [email protected].
For details, visit www.rd.usda.gov/foodsupplychainloans or see the notice published in the Dec. 9 Federal Register.
