Processor project gains steam

MAT-SU — Mat-Su Borough is still looking for funds to build an agricultural processing center in Palmer. Officials’ question to local ag producers: Are they willing to do what it takes to make it happen?

The borough has the funds for design work on the facility, which will likely include a shared-use kitchen and at least one line to process vegetables or fruit — freeze, blanche and/or juice.

The project was the primary focus of an agricultural forum sponsored by the borough and Mat-Su Chapter of the Alaska Farm Bureau at the Palmer Depot July 29.

According to Marian Romano, special assistant to the borough manager, what the Agricultural Processing and Development Center becomes will be determined by who steps up to say they will use the facility.

“We’re talking about public-private partnerships,” said Romano, who was assistant borough manager when spearheading this project 2004-2008. “No one from the Mat-Su Borough is going to be in there slicing and dicing vegetables.”

It is a project that’s gotten enthusiastic nods from officials — from the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to local officers of the Alaska Farm Bureau. But what it hasn’t received is enough funding to see it through.

According to a timeline assembled by borough staff, the notion dates back to a 1968 study on commercial production of peas, and was renewed in 1995 with a Mat-Su Small Business Development Center feasibility study that found interest in a shared-use kitchen. A glut of potatoes in 2001 brought the idea to the forefront again, and since then efforts have inched forward to see a processing center built.

The latest pot of money, a $250,000 state grant secured in 2006 by then state Sen. Lyda Green, will complete the design of the facility. A contractor has been selected and that selection is awaiting approval by the borough assembly.

“There is no construction money at this time,” Romano emphasized.

It’s been a frustratingly slow process for producers who see it as a way to expand their markets and add value to their crops. Local vegetable farmer Marie Domer, vice president of the Mat-Su Chapter of the Alaska Farm Bureau, conceived the notion of the July 29 forum with the borough’s deputy mayor, Lynne Woods. Domer sees the facility as a way to not only increase farming and jobs in agriculture, but help preserve the farming lifestyle here.

“It’s moved up on the priority level a little more,” Domer said after the meeting.

Domer said during a visit to Palmer in the summer of 2009, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the federal government needs to see a commitment from area farmers.

“We’ve got to have buy-in from the farmers,” Domer said, repeating Vilsack. “The farmers have got to have skin in the game.”

That includes something as simple as letters of support for the processing center, Romano said. Of 27 support letters sent with a funding request, only three were from individual farmers.

It might also mean forming a cooperative or investing dollars in the development, Domer said. She said local farmers do have skin in the game.

“It’s already our livelihood,” she said.

Dave Hanson, the borough’s economic development director, said entities are realizing the processing center could work. He sees the center being set up in a borough-private arrangement similar to the new recycling center.

“It appears that if there is interest, this could be a successful thing,” Hanson said. “Obviously, if the farmers in the community are in disagreement if this should be done, it’s going to be difficult.”

Not everyone agrees the center is needed. Mark Rempel, who farms about 14 acres in the Butte raising vegetables for the farmers’ markets in Anchorage, said there are too many limiting factors for the center to be successful.

“Look at the history of such things,” Rempel said this week. “We don’t have enough farmers, farm labor or product.”

Volumes of low-priced product is what would make such a center work, he said.

“That kind of system requires low-cost vegetables,” Rempel said. “No one can afford to sell for less than we are.”

Don Berberich, Palmer High agriculture and natural resources teacher, was there representing the Mat-Su Chapter of Alaska Farm Bureau and Palmer Soil & Water Conservation District.

Berberich said as the local Farm Bureau president, “I just want to know what they (farmers) want. Personally, I think we need to build this facility to grow agriculture. We finally have the chance here to put the horse before the cart.”

Officials at the meeting agreed misinformation about the project has been their enemy. Hence, the meeting last week, which included consecutive presentations on the facility.

There were many more questions about the size, scope and configuration of the proposed facility than borough officials could answer.

Ideas include having one or more lines to process local produce. This could mean a quick-freeze system or a blanching line to partially cook foods like potatoes, peas and broccoli, or both. Another option, not exclusive of the other two, is a juicing/bottling line, for which the most likely candidates are rhubarb or carrot beverages.

“What’s in there exactly will come from the users as we get closer,” Romano said.

That also makes pricing the facility difficult, though with no funding, how much it will cost isn’t a critical component at the moment.

Borough staff has identified some funding mechanisms, including parlaying the $11.9 million Mat-Su voters bonded for the Sgt. Kurtis Arcala Nutrition Services Center into matching funds for another grant. The new facility would likely be a new wing on the nutrition center, and the center, which assembles meals for students throughout the Mat-Su School District, is expected to be a purchaser of the local products.

“It could be several sources coming together,” Romano said.

The central component of the facility will likely be a shared-use kitchen, Romano said. The Department of Environment Conservation must approve any kitchen where food is prepared for sale to the public by anyone but the person who produced the product.

A DEC-approved, shared-used kitchen would mean anyone could rent the facility to produce edibles for sale — Alaska jams and jellies, syrups, salsas, etc. It could have ovens, tilt kettles, lockers for supplies, refrigerated and freezer space for individual use, etc.

Romano said the kitchen should be a cash cow. Single-use rentals for special events or special productions efforts could provide good income.

The center will likely mean different things to different users, officials said. A fledgling catering company could get its start renting kitchen space. A grower with a large patch of raspberries might rent the space to make jam once a year. Another grower might bring in a load of vegetables once a week all season to be blanched and frozen. Others might do contract growing for a processor who rents the facility.

“I want to be able to bring my truckload of broccoli to the place and go,” Domer said.

Another aspect that local officials expect to emphasize as they seek funds is the processing plant will help Alaska inch closer to greater food security.

“This is a way we can help have some of our stuff on the shelves,” Domer said.

While the meeting drew from a cross-section of local officials, farmers, university staff, agricultural agencies and supporters like the Northland Pioneer Grange and Friends of Mat-Su, Hanson said the community at large needs to get behind the effort.

“This is more of an agricultural community project,” Hanson said. He is forming a steering committee to take the project into the future. To get involved in the effort, people may contact the borough’s economic development department.