Ag secretary announces millions in meat processing investments

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack held a press call Tuesday to discuss millions of dollars the federal government is investing in meat and poultry processing facilities around the country, including in Montana, with more to come soon.

Vilsack said the Joe Biden administration set forth an aggressive effort to improve fairness and competition in the meat and poultry markets as well as improving local and regional food systems in January, and since then they've made a number of substantial investments in processing facilities to improve the market in three primary areas.

He said the administration has created a three-goal plan to increase competition, expand capacity and strengthen the supply chain and this $150 million in investments will help the markets move toward those goals.

He said $73 million of the $150 million has already been invested to expand the capacity of facilities

across 19 states.

The first example Vilsack gave for these investments was in the Montana Premium Processing Cooperative in Great Falls, one that the industry and the Montana Farmers' Union have worked to make sure succeeds.

Another example he gave was a livestock slaughter and processing facility in Vermont which will see its throughput triple and its multi-species facility modernized, connecting producers with businesses and institutions across the northeast.

He said they've also invested in the Cutting Edge Meat Company in Mississippi which will expand their capacity, allowing them to serve the surrounding states and address their six-month backlog of processing requests.

Today, Vilsack said, he will be in Omaha, Nebraska, for the opening of a Greater Omaha Packing facility which will see its capacity increase by 700 head per day, and create 275 jobs.

He said the investments they've made across the country will create 11,000 new jobs, excluding any construction jobs that may be created by the expansion projects.

"We're excited about these projects, we think it's going to expand capacity in beef, pork and mixed processing by over 500,000 head per year,: "he said. "We think it will expand capacity in poultry by over 34 million birds a year."

Vilsack said he wants to stress that these initial investments don't represent all the money that they've allocated, and they expect a second round of funding after that, so people should be on the lookout for when they open applications for that funding, which should be soon.

He said local support for expansions, labor availability and environmental impacts are taken into account when evaluating applications.

Vilsack also talked about a new loan guarantee program for public and private entities as well as tribes, which has seen an investment of $100 million, money they believe can be used to secure up to a billion in loans.

Already, he said, they've seen $254 million in loans through the program, including ones in Montana.

They are also setting up a meat and poultry intermediary lending program to provide grants to not-for-profit lenders, he said, allowing them to provide low-interest financing for startups and capacity expansions to existing slaughter and processing facilities.

Vilsack said they've already awarded $75 million to lenders in seven states which has facilitated over $223 million in grants and loans across the U.S.

He said the program does contain a requirement that the agency be notified if a potential change of ownership is being considered for 10 years after a grant or loan is received, triggering a review by the agency.

He said the program is meant to address facilities that find themselves fallen on hard times and hopefully give them a way to avoid closure or being bought by large corporations.

He said they've also been able to help almost 3,000 facilities around the U.S. reduce their inspection fees.

These investments, he said, focus on meat and poultry, but they are also looking at providing more support to non-meat and poultry operations through their Competitive Food Initiative.

"I think this is a good day for producers, a good day for those interested in working in these facilities, a good day for the communities served by these facilities and a good day for consumers," he said.