The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is making at least $5 billion available in loans through a new Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers (SPUR) Guaranteed Loan Program, meant to expand, improve and diversify the country's capacity to process meat, poultry and seafood.
The programme was announced on 23 October alongside the launch of an America First Seafood Strategy, a set of measures for the American seafood industry that the White House unveiled the same day.
Under SPUR, USDA guarantees 90 percent of a loan made by a commercial lender to an eligible borrower. A single borrower can receive up to $175 million, and loans may carry a two-year deferral of principal and interest payments. Federal and state-chartered banks, savings and loan associations, farm credit banks with direct lending authority and credit unions can lend under it; businesses, nonprofits, cooperatives, Indian tribes and state and local government bodies can apply to those lenders.
The department says the programme is aimed at small, independent and regional meat and poultry plants, and at small and regional beef processors in particular, to help them keep operating, grow and handle a wider range of animal proteins. It follows an executive order on fair competition in livestock markets and USDA's Rancher First Initiative announced last month.
Seafood processing is included as a step towards bringing the seafood industry into USDA programmes, after the department set up an Office of Seafood earlier this year. A separate executive order directed the Secretary of Commerce, consulting the Secretary of Agriculture, to draw up the seafood strategy to promote production, sale and export of American seafood and strengthen domestic processing.
"Today's announcement expanding funding opportunities for seafood processing from USDA highlights our commitment to building out the resources needed for American seafood products to be readily available for consumers," said Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins.
Processing capacity matters to livestock farmers and fishers because it decides how many buyers they can sell to and how far their animals or catch must travel. USDA says lenders can apply through its Rural Development guarantee portal, and borrowers can contact their local Rural Development office.
Photo: Gene Daniels / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: USDA
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