New revolving loan fund to develop meat production

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - To help improve rural communities in North Dakota, the Rural Development Finance Corporation is launching a revolving loan fund to establish more meat and poultry processing centers.

The company got a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The program works with start-up facilities giving low-interest loans for meat production.

North Dakota Rural Electric Cooperative’s director says it will help the local economy and create jobs.

“It’s important to process what we produce here, and it also supports our local food supply chain. As you know, we have a sparsely populated state and we have difficulty getting producers to our retail, grocery stores, to our schools, to our restaurants,” said Lori Capouch, rural development director with the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives.

Capouch says it makes it a bit easier that it’s local funds rather than federal.

The application process is on their webpage under rural development.

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