The Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NE-DBIC) announces the availability of funds through the Dairy Processor Modernization Grant program to address the significant need for investment in processing infrastructure in the Northeast.
Donor Name: Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NE-DBIC)
State: Selected States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant | In-Kind
Deadline: 08/14/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
Funds will support dairy processors and dairy brands in modernizing their production to allow for increased processing of regional dairy, long-term business viability, and ability to meet consumer demands. Projects funded through this grant will focus primarily on acquiring specialized equipment for dairy processing that offers benefits such as increased capacity, higher efficiency, reduced energy usage, increased quality, or ability to produce new or higher-value products. Projects that benefit more than one dairy business and those that incorporate technical assistance may be more competitive.
Project approaches may include:
- Improving product quality.
- Increasing production capacity to meet existing demand.
- Increasing labor or resource efficiency to reduce cost of production.
- Improving or light weighting packaging to reduce virgin plastics or improve product shelf life.
- Improving existing product lines or launching new, production-ready product lines.
- Other improvements to meet consumer demand.
Funding Information
- Total funds available: $1,000,000.
- Grants will range from $15,000 to $250,000 with a 25% (cash or in-kind) match commitment required.
Grant Period
Your project can take from 9 – 15 months to complete, depending on your needs.
Eligibility Criteria
Grants are available to dairy processors and dairy brands working with co-packing processors in all Northeast states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Applicants will qualify into one of two award tiers based on their processing volume.
To be eligible for this grant, you must fall into at least one of the following groups:
- Dairy processors that:
- Transform raw fluid milk, dairy components, or dairy mix into an edible product meant for human consumption; and
- Are headquartered or based in the Northeast; and Source or produce milk or dairy components from within the Northeast; and
- Manufacture products within the Northeast; and
- Hold a license as a dairy processor that permits the sale of their dairy products across state lines, even if they are not currently selling interstate.
- Dairy brands that market Northeast dairy products produced by a licensed dairy processor under a co-packing or other arrangement. For the purposes of this grant, a dairy brand is a business that develops and markets dairy products but may not operate its own processing facilities. Dairy brands own the rights to their products’ recipes, branding, and distribution, but work with licensed dairy processors, such as co-packers, to produce their products. White-label retailers, who rebrand products developed and produced by another company but do not own exclusive rights to the product, are not eligible. Dairy brands are eligible if:
- The project primarily benefits at least one dairy product meant for human consumption that is produced by a Northeast processor that meets all eligibility requirements as defined above; and
- A Letter of Commitment from the partner processor is included in the application.
For more information, visit NE-DBIC.
