North Dakota Commerce Department program to fund 4 projects to help develop farm products

North Dakota program to fund farm product projects

BISMARCK, N.D. — A group that funds developers of North Dakota farm products is giving money to four projects.

The quarterly grants from the Agricultural Products Utilization Commission, a state Commerce Department program better known as APUC, total nearly $213,000.

The largest grant, $100,000, is going to Otoka Spiritwood LLC for a business plan and feasibility study for a cellulosic biomass refinery in the Spiritwood Industrial Park.

North Dakota State University is getting about $57,000 to do research on buckwheat and mustard seed, the state Commerce Department is getting $30,000 to study an equine processing facility and Maple River Distillery LLC of Casselton is getting $26,000 for marketing.