Recent changes have been made to USDA’s Farm Storage Facility Loan Program that provides low-interest financing for producers to build or upgrade farm storage and handling facilities. It has been amended to allow producers to build cold storage facilities to store their fresh fruits and vegetables.
Eligibility
To be eligible, cold storage facilities must have a useful life of 15 years and include: New structures suitable for a cold storage facility; new walk-in prefabricated permanently installed coolers suitable for storing fresh fruits and vegetables; new permanently affixed cooling, circulating and monitoring equipment; electrical equipment integral to the proper operation of a cold storage facility; and must be an addition or modification to an existing storage facility.
USDA will not make cold storage facility loans for portable structures, portable handling and cooling equipment, used, or pre-owned structures or cooling equipment or structures deemed unsuitable.
Loan details.
The maximum loan amount for a Farm Storage Facility loan is $500,000 per loan, which requires a down payment of at least 15 percent. Applications must be approved before construction can begin. Loan terms of 7, 10 or 12 years are available depending on the amount of the loan.
Loans applications should be submitted to the administrative FSA county office that maintains the records of the farm or farms to which the application applies. If the commodities are produced on land that does not have farm records established, the application must be submitted to the FSA county office that services the county where the facility will be located.
For more information on this program or other FSA farm programs contact your local FSA county office or http://www.fsa.usda.gov.
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