“Today the conversations I have with my business colleagues, family and friends are focused around the best ways to rebuilding the U.S. economy,” said Jerry Lorenzen, President of World Food Processing, in his opening remarks at a public event at his company’s headquarters in Oskaloosa, Iowa, last week.
One of Lorenzen’s top concerns, like many Americans, has been how to stimulate the economy now and how to strengthen it for the future. Lorenzen believes that the way to build long-term growth is to ignite the manufacturing sector and he isn’t the only one who feels this way.
President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) of 2009 into law with a vision of knowing it will help America. One part of this act is to help businesses with startup, expansion and refinance costs to ensure businesses will continue to flourish despite the recession.
USDA Rural Development was tasked with investing $1.6 billion in Recovery Act guaranteed loan funds to support local economic development. More than $80 million of that has come to help Iowa businesses.
On August 11, federal, state and local leaders, including Congressman Leonard Boswell, attended a funding event at World Food Processing to congratulate them on an $8 million loan guarantee to accommodate the company’s growth into the food ingredient market.
Since the company’s founding in 1999, World Food Processing has gone a long way to fulfilling the company’s mission of being the premier supplier of non-genetically modified organism (GMO) food ingredients in the world. The company contracts with farmers to grow non-GMO and organic food grade soybeans, yellow peas and other identity-preserved grains. The quality and quantity of nutrients contained in soybeans makes them an excellent food base for many different countries and a variety of different foods and food ingredients.
USDA Rural Development has worked with World Food Processing’s lenders during the past 10 years to help build and equip facilities and provide working capital. This has assisted the company in broadening their capabilities and reach to provide a healthier food source to countries around the world.
“USDA Rural Development is pleased to have such a long relationship with World Food Processing,” said Judith Canales, USDA Rural Development’s Business Programs Administrator. “The company’s success has been made possible, in part, through the formation of local, state and federal partnerships, along with strategic private-sector business relationships. We also want to thank Bank Iowa for their participation in this loan guarantee,” Canales said. “One of our agency’s key roles is to assist lenders in their efforts to invest in our local communities. Our business and industry guaranteed loan fund is a great way to make this happen.”