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The Piedmont Food & Agricultural Processing Center, a business incubator that will serve 22 counties, broke ground this week in Hillsborough.

The facility, which is projected to open in the spring, will allow farmers and food entrepreneurs to process their food in a commercial kitchen. It will have a wet side (for sauces, jams, jellies, etc.) and a dry side for baking, as well as product, refrigerated and frozen storage. It will have equipment that may be beyond the reach of many food businesses to own individually, including walk-in coolers, freezers, bottle fillers, ovens and meat grinders. The basic hourly rental fee is $25.

The facility also will provide food certification, and will also offer classes on starting food-based businesses.

Food is a big business in North Carolina, and the lack of public processing centers has been a real barrier to small food entrepreneurs. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture offers classes and other resources to support this segment of the economy. The NC State Department of Food (technically, the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Services) offers additional services and supplies.

The $1.2 million facility was funded by N.C. Agricultural Development & Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, the Tobacco Trust Fund, the Golden Leaf Foundation, the U.S. Housing & Urban Economic Development Initiative Program, the RAFI-USA Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Program, and the N.C. Department of Agricultural & Consumer Services Specialty Crop Program.

Tags: baked goods, entrepreneurs, farmers, food processing, Golden Leaf Foundation, Hillsborough, local food, N.C. Agricultural Development & Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, N.C. Department of Agricultural & Consumer Services Specialty Crop Program, North Carolina, Piedmont Food & Agricultural Processing Center, RAFI-USA Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Program, rubs, salsa, sauces, sustainable food, Tobacco Trust Fund, U.S. Housing & Urban Development Economic Initiative Program

This entry was posted on Friday, October 29th, 2010 at 8:00 pm and is filed under small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.