Seven projects, from Oregon to New York, will receive a combined $35 million to expand independent domestic fertilizer production, with one-third of the money going to an aluminum sulfate producer in Virginia, said the Agriculture Department on Wednesday. Since the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program was created in 2022, nearly $287 million in grants has gone to 64 projects across the country to increase U.S. production by 5.6 million tons annually.
In the new round of grants, the USDA awarded $11.8 million to AdvanSix to expand its aluminum sulfate fertilizer facility in Hopewell, Virginia, about 20 miles south of Richmond. The project would increase operational capacity by 195,000 tons a year. The second-largest grant, worth $9 million, went to Nyrstar Tennessee Mines to construct plants in Gordonsville and New Market, in eastern Tennessee, to produce 370,000 tons of pelletized agricultural lime a year.
The Biden administration launched the fertilizer grant program in response to high fertilizer prices that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
A list of grant winners is available here.