Are you a farmer, processor, cooperative, or food hub serving Arizona communities? Do you want to grow your capacity, expand market opportunities, and serve local people? Then this award is for YOU!

Currently, most of Arizona's agriculture businesses are geared toward exporting. Our goal is to shift that focus to building a strong local food system. The Business Builder Award Program aims to help small and mid-sized growers process and distribute more locally-produced food. By increasing food processing capacity and creating value-added products, these businesses can feed local communities and find more opportunities in local markets.

The Southwest Regional Food Business Center’s Business Builder Award Program strives to strengthen local food systems and help small and mid-sized food producers thrive by accessing new markets, expanding their reach and connecting with local food networks.

These awards are designed to support post-harvest projects of established businesses, including:

• Business planning, development and marketing

• Food safety compliance and training

• Value-added product development

• Infrastructure improvements for processing and distribution

• Equipment, operating costs and more!

Unfortunately, these awards do not cover on-farm activities. Funded projects must be post-harvest only - projects cannot have the goal of expanding your harvest.

If you have an on-farm project you would like help with, please reach out to learn about other ways we can help you.

Award amounts: $10,000 – $100,000

Your business will need to have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number from SAM.gov. Watch a video here to learn how to get one. Note that it may take up to two weeks for processing.

Learn more about the Business Builder program on the Southwest Regional Food Business Center website.

Ready to Apply?