The U.S Department of Agriculture announced that they will be making an investment into a manufacturing company located in Panora Friday. 

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack alongside US Congresswomen Cindy Axne made it public that they are investing $11.1 million into Crystal Freeze Dry LLC through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says they will be using $100 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to be allocated to loan guarantees which will back private investment in meat and poultry processing  along with other food supply infrastructure that hopes to strengthen the food supply chain for Americans. 

“We learned during the pandemic that as efficient as our food system was in the country, it was not as resilient as we thought. So the American Rescue Plan basically provided resources to the Department of Agriculture with the instruction from Representative Axne and her colleagues in Congress to use these resources to strengthen, to create a greater and more resilient food system.”

Crystal Freeze Dry LLC is a family owned dried food product manufacturer. Chief of Operations Leonardo Etcheto explained how this investment will help their company. 

“So it helps us better our technology. The more we can improve our technology, the more that we can serve our customers, which ultimately is to replace frozen and liquid so we can ship egg anywhere in the world with no loss. So it just allows us to do that much faster than it would otherwise. It accelerates our process.”

Etcheto said it was really good to talk with representatives and get an understanding of what the legislation is trying to accomplish and how their goals align with that. USDA will announce additional recipients for the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program in the coming weeks and months.