Shipping included: North Carolina agribusinesses are paving new roads to reach developing markets around the world.

• Author: Bivins, D. Lawrence
• Position: SPONSORED SECTION

It's about 15 hours of windshield time and 1,000 miles between Montreal and the places in North Carolina that concern Charlotte-based Trinity Frozen Foods LLC. La Belle Province is where the company takes its sweet potatoes to be processed into french fries, a hot commodity for restaurants, cafeterias and vendors. "Sweet potato fries are an up-and-coming item on restaurant menus," says Jere Null, the company's president and CEO. But going from the field to a Canadian factory then back to Lumberton for distribution drives up costs. For agribusinesses, raising or growing their products is only half the chore. They still have to get them to market.

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In 2012, 62,000 acres of sweet potatoes were cultivated in North Carolina, about half the crop's acreage nationwide, making the state the top producer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Consumption of sweet potatoes is increasing, which is good news for growers and processors. They are categorized as a superfood because they stabilize blood sugar and provide vitamins B6 and C, as well as minerals such as iron and potassium. USDA includes servings of red-orange vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, in its school-lunch guidelines.

The rising popularity of sweet potatoes makes Trinity's growth prospects solid, but it wants to establish production operations closer to the source of its raw materials as one way to increase profitability. Most french fries are made from white potatoes and are processed in the Midwest and West, where that crop is tops, leaving the eastern U.S. without a fryer. So the company is building a 120,000-square-foot processing plant in Pembroke, which each year will convert 52 million pounds of sweet potatoes into fries. It's scheduled to open in July, Null says. "Within the first two years, we'll employ 150 workers."

So far, the company's business plan has resonated with investors. In 2012, Trinity was spun off from Wayne Bailey Inc., a 70-year-old agribusiness based in Chadbourn. Brevard-based Carolina Financial Group--through its broker-dealer subsidiary, Carolina Financial Securities--organized $11 million in private-placement financing to support Trinity's plant. Aside from proximity, a Tar Heel sweet-potato fry plant makes business sense from other angles too. The state sits within easy reach of about 60% of the U.S. population, and the consumer-foods cluster has trucks and warehouses at the ready. "We need frozen carriers, and with all...