Increasing Meat Production, Efficiency and Capacity (IMPEC)

The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Increasing Meat Production, Efficiency and Capacity (IMPEC) grant program is geared to independent state meat and seafood processing facilities. In addition to increasing production, efficiency and/or capacity, projects can also include value-added processing. Project categories can include equipment and infrastructure, contractual/consultation, labor, training and retention, and other identified needs.

To be eligible for grant funding, applicants must contract with independent livestock producers or seafood harvesters to process animals or seafood and must be state or federally inspected, or must produce further processed meat products under state or federal inspection, or be a USDA inspected processor of shelf-stable meat or meat products. Proposals can be for beef, pork, small ruminant, seafood, and catfish processing facilities. Recipients must match $1 in funds or services for every $2 in grant funding; cash or services must come from non-federal and/or state sources, and matching funds cannot be used as a match for any other federal or state cost-share project.

Match is the only quantified term NCDA&CS publishes: "Recipients must match $1 in funds or services for every $2 in grant funding. Cash or services must come from non-federal and/or state sources, and matching funds cannot be used as a match for any other federal or state cost-share project." In practice that means the grant covers up to two-thirds of a project and you bring one-third, in cash or in-kind services.

No award ceiling, floor, or funding-round total is published on the NCDA&CS grants page for the current IMPEC program, and no application deadline is stated. Earlier IMPEC rounds were announced with their own per-project limits, but no current figure is posted — contact the Director of Agricultural Project Management (Charles Fletcher) for the amount available in the current round before budgeting a project.

Eligible spending categories: equipment and infrastructure, contractual/consultation, labor, training and retention, and other identified needs; projects may also include value-added processing.

No contract length, interest rate, or fee applies — IMPEC is a grant to independent state-inspected meat and seafood processing facilities.

Administered by the NCDA&CS grants program. For program information and application materials contact the Director of Agricultural Project Management (Charles Fletcher). No application deadline is stated on the page.