Groundbreaking Agribusiness Coming to County

April 5, 2018

Groundbreaking agribusiness coming to county

Chesterfield County Council unanimously approved an economic inducement package at Wednesday’s meeting that sweetened the pot for an agribusiness to invest $22 million and create 50 new full-time jobs for the county over the next several years.

Based in Laurinburg, N.C., Southeast Specialty Crops Processing, a division of US Stevia LLC, will soon be growing and harvesting stevia, a perennial plant native to Paraguay, in Chesterfield County.

Stevia is a rapidly emerging specialty crop in the United States as more companies seek improved sugar substitutes for health-conscious consumers. The plant, which started domestic production in North Carolina in 2011, has been used in other countries for many years as an all-natural, no-calories sweetener.