One of the biggest cheerleaders for North Dakota products is going out of business.

North Dakota Branded Beef at 3120 E. Broadway plans to close its doors after business on Oct. 18.

"We wanted to give people a full two weeks heads up because we have a wonderful selection of Pride of Dakota products,"said owner Jaunita Braun.

The store is the largest carrier of North Dakota products, carrying about 300 Pride of Dakota products from about 60 different suppliers, as well as selling various state-raised beef.

In fact, the original intent of the store was to sell meat born, raised and processed in state. But once they closed their processing plant in August, they couldn't find an economically feasible way to process their meat in-state.

"It simply wasn't making it. It was too big just to do local processing, and we were too small of a company to compete on a national level,"Braun said. "Then, without that processing plant in place, we can't get our meat dry-aged anywhere. And no other plant could do all of the processing we did in one place."

Shipping it around would have cost too much, she said.

Because the meat was the bulk of their business, they have to close. She's hoping, though, that someone will take her place in selling the Pride of Dakota inventory.

"It started from (meat), and it grew into providing a consolidated retail location for hundreds of North Dakota products,"she said. "In the last two years, we have worked to promote them all over."

Chuck Fleming with Pride of Dakota said the Brauns will be missed.

"Iadmire their determination to promote North Dakota, and I think it's something that every company should emulate,"Fleming said.

North Dakota Branded Beef opened two years ago and won Pride of Dakota's retailer of the year award in 2007.

Braun isn't sure where she'll work after the store closes, but said she'd like to help someone else sell Pride of Dakota inventory. She noted that last year, around Christmas, her store sent off nearly 100 gift baskets and packages a day.

"I would dearly love to have a business in Bismarck come forward and put this in their already established inventory," she said.

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@;bismarcktribune.com.)