USDA awards over $120 million to fund six fertilizer production projects

HOUSTON (ICIS)–The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it is awarding over $120 million today to fund six fertilizer production projects in Arkansas, California, Illinois, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program (FPEP).

Currently the agency has invested over $368 million in 67 projects through FPEP which has an allocation of up to $900 million.

Projects receiving this round of funding include fertilizer producer LSB Industries which will be provided a $77 million grant to expand production capacity of its urea and ammonium nitrate facility in Arkansas to 580,000 tons/year.

The expanded capacity will allow product to be available to an estimated 450,000 agricultural producers within a four-state region and is expected to create 20 full-time positions.

Another project will be at Agtegra Cooperative in South Dakota, which is receiving a $3 million grant to build a new fertilizer manufacturing building and install two storage tanks with a combined capacity of 950,000 gallons.

The USDA also announced $20.2 million in awards to 26 projects through the Local Meat Capacity (Local MCap) grant program to expand processing capacity within the meat and poultry industry with a goal of lowering food cost for consumers.