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RALEIGH – Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler announced the second round of awards from the North Carolina Agricultural Manufacturing and Processing Initiative, to include one for a Hertford County based business.

Sandy Land Peanut of Harrellsville was awarded $1,319,652 for peanut processing.

Troxler said a total of $6.6 million in awards focus on the expansion of current operations to use more North Carolina farm products and reduce costs and burdens for North Carolina farmers and growers. These six projects benefit peanut, rice, barley, and cucumber farmers and livestock growers.

These awards bring the total of NCAMPI grants awarded to $19 million, exhausting funds available for the program.

“Our farmers and growers need more options close by to process and distribute their products,” Troxler said. “These NCAMPI products will increase farmer opportunities, reduce their costs, and result in more North Carolina jobs and private investment. I’m appreciative of the confidence the General Assembly placed in the department to administer this new initiative and look forward to continuing support to meet the strong demand and obvious need for the program.”

NCDA&CS administers the NCAMPI program with funding provided by the General Assembly to increase North Carolina agricultural manufacturing and food processing capacity.

The other five grant recipients and projects are as follows:

Mt. Olive Pickles of Duplin County — $3 million for pasteurizer.

Tidewater Grain of Pamlico County — $180,000 for grain storage bins.

Harpley’s of Randolph County — $642,000 for meat processing.

Carolina Malt House of Rowan County — $750,000 for malting barley.

Phinite of Sampson County — $750,000 for fertilizer manufacturing.