Dive Brief:
- Seaboard Foods and Triumph Foods are partnering to construct a $264 million pork plant in Sioux City, IA, that will employ about 1,100 people to start.
- The region is already home to a large hog population, which made Sioux City a prime location for this venture.
- The plant is estimated to be able to slaughter 3 million pigs each year, or about 10,000 to 12,000 per day. Each company would be held to supplying one-third of those pigs, thus about 1 million hogs would be bought on the open market.
Dive Insight:
Many pork producers and commodities experts are pleased with this decision, as they feel the new plant will inject competition into a market already poised for growth.
This would be the first brand new hog slaughterhouse built in the U.S. since 2006. The new facility will capitalize on steadily growing pork production, which is predicted to increase by about 1.2% in 2016, which is beyond the 6.8% already forecast for 2015.
Earlier this year, pork production surpassed beef for the first time since 1952, and the pork industry continues to bounce back from the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus.