Southwest Regional Food Business Center

Three food and farm entrepreneurs representing the diverse client mix of the Southwest Regional Food Business Center

 

Welcome to the Southwest Regional Food Business Center UC ANR website

 

The Southwest Regional Food Business Center accelerates resilient, diverse and competitive local and regional food systems by improving opportunities for food and farm businesses across Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. The Center’s three pillars of service are coordination, technical assistance and capacity building. Through its network of partner organizations, the Southwest Center conducts place-based technical assistance and capacity-building across this four-state region. The goal of the Center is to build a ‘coalition of coalitions’ that delivers multi-sector coordination efforts and business development programs to strengthen local producers’ economic viability, improve the supply chain’s resilience, and center equity in regional food systems. 

The Southwest Regional Food Business Center was established as a part of the USDA Regional Food Business Centers Program along with 11 other regional business centers and a National Intertribal Center. To find out more about the program and the other regional business centers visit the USDA Regional Food Business Centers Program website. Learn more about the work of the Southwest Regional Food Business Center through our impact page, featuring an interactive StoryMap, success stories, partner highlights, and more.

 

Supporting food entrepreneurs with business training and market access.

 

 

Food & Farm Entrepreneur Support

 

Farmer speaking with a USDA representative with a greenhouse and field in the background.
Capacity Building

The Center provides financial assistance through Business Builder subawards to support projects focused on regional needs and businesses that are working towards expansion and other investment. These sub-awards support post harvest staff time, business planning activities, software implementation, the purchase of special purpose equipment-such as food safety or refrigeration, processing and packaging equipment-and value chain coordination, and other expenses. To date, we have awarded 70 farm and food businesses across our region.

Funded by USDA, the Southwest Regional Food Business Center announced 70 Business Builder Awards in 2025 and 2026 to small and mid-sized farm and food businesses across the Southwest region.

 

Farmer managing a greenhouse vertical growing system.
Coordination

The Southwest Regional Food Business Center acts as a regional hub, coordinating across California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and other federal, state, and tribal agencies. The Center engages with a diverse network of partners to develop and implement strategic targeted plans for technical assistance and capacity building that serves the region’s under resourced communities and businesses.

 

 

Rancher walking through field with green grass and two cows in the background.
Technical Assistance

The Southwest Regional Food Business Center provides direct business technical assistance to small- and mid-sized food and farm businesses (producers, processors, aggregators, distributors, and other businesses within the food supply chain) and food value and supply chain coordination. 

 

 

 

 

Impact

 

Key Activities

2,625 individuals participated in technical assistance training. 558 new food and farm business support partnerships. 70 Business Builder subawards distributed amounting to $1,526,293
Total Individuals Trained by Topic. Market development = 1,556. Business development = 1,039. Value chain coordination = 771. Direct-to-consumer business management = 869. Strategies to improve regional food value chains = 771. Accessing institutional consumers = 658. Navigating and managing financial resources from third parties = 531

 

Expanding and Strengthening Food System Networks and Partnerships

 

Expanding and Strengthening Food System Networks and Partnerships. 298 partners reported more efficient and coordinated use of resources. 169 partners reported increased sales or regional food products. 165 partners reported securing additional funding

 

Creating More and Better Markets, Increasing Market Awareness and Access, New Food and Farm Businesses, and Improving Viability of Existing Businesses

 

Increasing Market Awareness and Access. 356 connections established between producers and processors and market access points. Develop New Food and Farm Businesses and Improve Viability of Existing Businesses. 487 new business plans created. 1,184 business owners reported increased knowledge about new market opportunities. 352 businesses reported increased revenue.

 

Stay engaged with the Southwest Regional Food Business Center and read about what’s happening across the region!

 

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Office Locations

2801 Second Street
Davis, CA 95618
United States

tbcelio@ucanr.edu