Sanderson Farms looks for second site for NC plant

The company is looking for approximately 1,000 acres to facilitate the building of its proposed US$106 million poultry processing plant as well as a spray field for its treated wastewater, the Charlotte News & Observer reported.

Sanderson is also building a chicken-processing complex in Kinston, NC, that is set to open in January.

A decision is expected soon on the location of the second North Carolina facility as construction is scheduled to begin in the spring, the newspaper quoted Mike Cockrell, Sanderson’s chief financial officer, as saying.

“It will be near Goldsboro in some sense of that word, whether or not it’s five miles out of town or 20 miles, we just don’t know,” Cockrell said.

In March, Sanderson said the North Carolina facilities together would boost the company’s processing capacity by 30% and should provide steady production growth through 2010.

The Kinston plant will process 1.2 million chickens a week for the retail grocery market. The second North Carolina plant would process the same amount of larger chickens for restaurants and other food service companies.

The North Carolina plants will help Sanderson serve markets and customers in the Northeast, Cockrell said.

The new plant is expected to employ up to 1,500 people, and the jobs are expected to pay about US$11 an hour with benefits, the newspaper reported.