North Carolina Department Of Agriculture & Consumer Services

North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, a U.S. state government entity, operates as a prime recipient of federal contracts and grants (98% of 1,047 recent awards) across animal health diagnostics, food safety, forestry conservation, and invasive species management, with no set-asides applicable to government agencies. The agency's federal footprint spans 41 distinct customer agencies, concentrated heavily in USDA programs and civilian food and agricultural oversight.

The agency's contract work centers on animal health laboratory diagnostics and food safety inspections. USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services is the dominant customer by dollar value—45 awards totaling $46.1 million combined potential value—driven by a $25 million indefinite-delivery contract for National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) diagnostic testing services (culture, isolation, immunoassay, molecular diagnostics including PCR and whole-genome sequencing, and ancillary testing for endemic and foreign animal diseases) running through September 2031. APHIS Marketing and Regulatory Programs follows with 27 awards worth $20.4 million combined potential value for animal health laboratory testing under a $20 million IDC vehicle (contract 12639521D0080), from which the agency places delivery orders for avian influenza testing, African swine fever and classical swine fever diagnostics, and foreign animal disease testing. The Food and Drug Administration awarded a $2.47 million definitive contract (September 30, 2026, through March 29, 2032) for human food inspections in North Carolina and a $968,524 contract for animal food inspections, both firm fixed-price with no set-aside. HHS FDA also funds cooperative agreements totaling $1.96 million for human food and animal feed regulatory program standards maintenance and laboratory testing under the FDA Research program (CFDA 93.103).

The agency's grant portfolio—all cooperative agreements and project grants from USDA Forest Service, APHIS, FDA, EPA, and other civilian agencies—accounts for the majority of recent awards by count and includes five-year forest management and restoration grants totaling $63.65 million (July 2025) for hurricane and disaster recovery on private forestland, $6.38 million (June 2023) for consolidated payment consolidating cooperative forestry, forest health, and fire programs, and $13.5 million (December 2024) under the Inflation Reduction Act Forest Legacy Program for conservation easement acquisitions. APHIS cooperative agreements support spotted lanternfly detection and control ($205,000 to $211,105 each), invasive species management (biological control of knotweeds, $100+ thousand annually), animal disease surveillance (avian, swine, cattle, and cervid health at $744 thousand to $904 thousand combined), witchweed eradication, and rapid-response funding for highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak costs ($308,541 in November 2025, $144,000+ in January 2025). Specialty crop block grants from USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (CFDA 10.170) total $1.31 million (September 2025) to enhance competitiveness of strawberries, blueberries, sweet potatoes, Christmas trees, and tomatoes. The agency receives formula grants for food distribution (TEFAP administrative costs, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Child Nutrition meal reimbursement, SNAP—$2.5 million to $3.2 million annually) and pesticide enforcement from EPA Region 4 ($245,058 for statewide inspections, training, and certification of applicators over three years). Forest Service grants for wildfire prevention, hazardous fuels reduction, state fire capacity, volunteer fire assistance, and forest health protection (southern pine beetle, invasive species eradication) range from $145,000 to $6.62 million over five-year periods.

The agency's customer concentration is weighted toward USDA—APHIS accounts for 374 awards (35% of total), Forest Service R8-Southern Region 111 awards, and Food and Nutrition Service 79 awards. FDA, EPA, and DOI Fish and Wildlife Service round out the active set. Across these relationships, the agency competes full-and-open on most procurements (no set-asides applicable to state government entities); the NAHLN contract requires AAVLD or ISO 17025 accreditation and HL7 messaging interoperability, restricting competition to approved laboratories.

Activity has remained steady at 41–62 awards per year over the past five years (most recent: 41 awards in 2026 year-to-date). Thirty-nine awards face recompete or completion within twenty-four months with combined potential value of $1.6 million. The agency holds a single-award $25 million NAHLN contract through September 2031 and places orders under the $20 million APHIS animal health lab IDC. The agency acts as a prime on nearly all work; sub-awards to North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources cover disaster recovery, state forest facilities, and urban tree planting coordination under forestry grants.