Lincoln Premium Poultry is in charge of the project which
includes an 85,000-square-foot
hatchery, 360,000-square-foot processing facility, 32,000-square-foot feed mill
with 145-foot silos.
The company has
also lined up farmers to grow the chickens and banks to lend them money.
The original
project was estimated to cost $180 million and be open by August, 2018.
It is now a
$300-million project scheduled to open in 2019.
The company’s planners
have visited Europe and have decided to buy automated equipment that will
reduce the expected workforce from 1,100 to between 800 and 1,000.
This is a type of investment that won't happen in Canada because provincial trade barriers and marketing boards make it virtually impossible to develop one complex capable of marketing chickens across the nation.
