USDA Announces More Money for Meat Processing Capacity, New Efforts to Strengthen Food Supply Chain
USDA is making $200 million available to create a new meat processing capacity expansion program, providing $25 million for workforce training under the Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program (MPILP).
The $200 million will “provide much-needed financing to independent meat and poultry processors to start up and expand operations,” USDA said. The program will provide grants of up to $15 million to qualifying recipients that will use the funding to create a revolving loan fund to finance capacity expansion.
The financing will be available to independent meat and poultry processors to “start up and expand operations.” MPILP will provide grants of up to $15 million to nonprofit lenders, including private nonprofits, cooperatives, public agencies and tribal entities, according to USDA. Those entities are to use the funding to “establish a revolving loan fund to finance a variety of activities related to meat and poultry processing.”
Past Announcements
In November, USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the investment of $32 million in grants awarded to 167 meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities to support expanded capacity and efficiency through the Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant (MPIRG) program.
That was followed by the Biden Administration announcing in January that it will spend $1 billion in American Rescue Funds to expand independent meat processing capacity as part of a broader initiative to break up what it calls a meat and poultry processor monopol
Poultry Prices
USDA also announced new proposed poultry regulations. The proposed rule on poultry grower contracting and tournaments is one of three regulations the Biden administration has promised to pursue. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack will likely talk about the results as he appears today before the Senate Agriculture Committee. Link to USDA release on the topic.
USDA unveiled a proposed rule under the Packers and Stockyards Act they say will “protect poultry growers from abuse,” according to a USDA release. The proposed rule will require poultry processors to provide information to poultry growers at several steps which USDA said is aimed at “increasing transparency and accountability in the poultry growing system.
Processors would have to disclose details of inputs provided to each farmer and information about the input differences among farmers being ranked. The disclosures would cover the level of control and discretion exercised by the poultry processor and “what financial returns the farmer can expect from the relationship based on the range of real experiences of other growers,” USDA said. “Contracts would also be required to contain guaranteed annual flock placements and density. Poultry processor CEOs would be required to sign off on the compliance process for disclosure accuracy.”
In addition, USDA announces effort to gather information fairness in poultry growing tournament systems. USDA said it “opening an inquiry into whether some practices of processors in the tournament system are so unfair that they should be banned or otherwise regulated.” USDA wants feedback to “determine whether the current tournament-style system in poultry growing could be restricted or modernized to create a fairer, more inclusive marketplace.”
