Sen. Fischer opposed the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program designed to increase competition across the economy to help lower costs for American families. The initiative expands meat and poultry processing capacity, which in turn increases competition, supports producer income, and strengthens the food supply chain to lower costs for working families and create jobs and economic opportunities in rural areas. The Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program (MPPEP) provides grants to help eligible processors expand their processing capacity, which create new, better and more processing options for meat and poultry producers.
USDA Rural Development designed the MPPEP to encourage competition and sustainable growth in the U.S. meat processing sector, and to help improve supply chain resiliency.
Nebraska has received several awards under MPPEP including:
2024
Borchard Custom Cut and Processing dba Dundy County Processors $1,160,368
Dundy County Processors is a family-owned beef and pork processing business in rural Benkelman, Nebraska. Utilizing MPPEP – Phase 2 funding, they will construct a new facility to double processing capacity, begin operating under federal inspection, and significantly increase their production of value-added products. With this new increased capacity, they will beable to work with an additional 100 local producers. These improvements will also allow Dundy County Processors to access new wholesale and value-added markets.
2023
Greater Omaha Packing Company Inc. $19,982,400
Greater Omaha Packing is a 3rd generation, privately owned company located in Omaha, Nebraska, that procures cattle primarily from independent producers in IA and NE. Greater Omaha Packing processes 2,400 head of cattle daily for customers across the country and to 70 nations worldwide. The company is taking a phased approach to increase slaughter and processing throughput from 2,400 cattle per day to 3,100 head per day, which equates to an additional annual production of 195,000 cattle per year, involving equipment purchases, automation systems, and facility improvements. The expansion will create 275 jobs.
Lot 279 LLC $688,011
Lot 279 LLC has been selling beef products in direct to consumer retail since 2016. In an effort to capitalize on the expanding interest in family farms building their own beef
brands, Lot 279 intends to build a federally inspection portion cutting and further processing facility for use by at least three family-owned cattle producers who are seeking to create their own brands of value added beef products. The company will provide fee based processing and other services; portioning and grinding services, processing and manufacturing of meats for sale to wholesale or retail customers. The facility will help ensure that small and mid sized kill facilities that are operational or being built in the
region will be utilized fully.
Wholestone Farms II LLC $25,000,000
This Rural Development investment will be used to help offset the costs associated with refurbishing an old processing plant. Wholestone Farms II LLC is comprised of a group of hog farmers who will use the facility to process their pigs. The facility investment will increase processing capacity and contribute to a more resilient and diverse U.S. food supply chain.