Q&A with Kyle Player, Executive Director:

How long has your business been working with the agricultural industry and/or community and rural development initiatives in South Carolina?

ACRE was established in 2018 to assist small-to-midsize agribusinesses throughout South Carolina. We provide funding, business planning, grant assistance, etc. Since ACRE’s inception, we have awarded $1,053,500 in funding to SC entrepreneurs.

In what ways does your business contribute to the agricultural industry, community, and rural development, or promote Agritourism in South Carolina?

ACRE has hosted agritourism workshops, funded several agritourism farms and helped many farms create a business plan for their next steps. In addition, ACRE has advertised for these rural agritourism farms and help them work with our network of advisors to help expand their farm. 

In what ways do you foresee your business impacting the Agritourism industry in South Carolina in the future?

As agritourism continues to grow in SC, ACRE plans to be at the forefront of assisting this expansion. ACRE has worked with the SC Agritourism Association to provide small business development grants to emerging agritourism farms, ACRE is on a grant that is going to focus on helping veterans start agritourism farms and any other ways we can help elevate the agritourism industry in SC. 

If someone was interesting in learning more about your services/offerings, where would you point them?

ACRE-SC.com, or my email distribution list (email at kplayer@scda.sc.gov to join).