Aphrodite Oysters LLC

Aphrodite Oysters LLC, a woman-owned sole proprietorship based in South Thomaston, Maine, operates as a federal grant recipient in the agricultural sector, receiving direct grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and participating as a sub-recipient on USDA-funded projects. The vendor is a small oyster farm with no federal contract prime or subcontract footprint; all federal work is grant-based.

Aphrodite Oysters received two USDA prime grants totaling $101 thousand. The first, a Renewable Energy System (RES) grant of $20 thousand or less awarded May 30, 2023, by Rural Business Cooperative Services, funded renewable energy infrastructure and ran through May 30, 2025. The second, a COVID-19 relief grant awarded January 3, 2022, by the Agricultural Marketing Service, supported pandemic response costs incurred between January 27, 2020, and December 31, 2021, including workplace safety measures, facility retrofits, transportation, worker housing, and medical expenses; this grant completed January 2, 2023. Both grants were project-grant assistance types. Aphrodite Oysters also appears as a sub-recipient on a third award, a November 21, 2025, sub-grant from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Research Foundation (the prime grantee), which supports the purchase of a refrigerated vehicle to enable the farm to increase production capacity, expand market reach, and work toward doubling sales.

The vendor's federal footprint is confined to the Department of Agriculture, which accounts for 100% of recorded awards across two administering offices: Agricultural Marketing Service and Rural Business Cooperative Services. Activity is sparse — one award in 2022, one in 2023, and one in 2025 — reflecting the vendor's role as a small agricultural producer rather than a systems or services contractor. The 2025 completion date on the RES grant represents the most recent obligated work.