Jan. 30—GRAND FORKS — Growing the city's agribusiness and manufacturing sectors along with leveraging the capabilities of UND and Northland Community and Technical College to grow other industries in the region is among the many priorities on the Economic Development Corporation's to-do list in 2023.
Keith Lund, president and CEO of the EDC, said the organization looks at jobs, population and income growth to determine the region's health. In order for new resources to be brought into the city, industrial growth is necessary.
"Our mission as an economic development corporation is to expand economic opportunity through industry growth and diversification," Lund said. "We focus on the primary sector, and those are businesses who add value to a product or service locally, but sell the majority of their goods outside the region. And by doing so, they bring new resources into the region."
The city has had success throughout the years, particularly in the agribusiness sector. Lund said Grand Forks has key attributes to leverage and grow the industry in the region.
The Red River Valley "is one of the top three places in the world for production agriculture," he said. "We have water availability and our infrastructure has been developed in order to support this industry to include rail. We have a lot of opportunity to leverage those strengths for even more agribusiness expansions, so that is a clear focus of the EDC."
According to Lund, the past 12 to 14 months have been by far the most successful at the EDC — at least from an announcement standpoint specifically related to agribusiness expansion.
In late 2021
Fufeng publicly announced
it has selected Grand Forks as its first U.S. site for a wet corn mill plant. Although it has been a controversial project, it still plans to build on the city's northern edge.
Then in December,
Epitome Energy announced
its plans to build a soybean crushing facility in Grand Forks after moving the location from Crookston, Minnesota.
For the manufacturing sector, Lund said the EDC works with existing manufacturers to help them expand, create jobs and take advantage of opportunities within the industry.
While the agribusiness and manufacturing sectors are fundamental for the region, Lund said some of the newer leading-edge opportunities are associated with unmanned aerial systems. Grand Forks has the infrastructure to support the UAS industry; it's a combination of the missions at Grand Forks Air Force Base, research testing and education training at UND and Northland, and GrandSky, which Lund said is a "tremendous asset."