US-based Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest food companies, and a market leader in the chicken, beef and pork sectors, has “proposed” building a new processing facility valued at approximately $136 million (£95m).
Set to be located near its existing poultry plant in Green Forest, Arkansas, the proposed plant’s details were “lodged by a group of Tyson Foods employees” with the finance committee of Carroll County Quorum Court last week. The company said the project is “contingent in part on the approval of certain tax abatements from Carroll County and sales and use tax credits from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC)”.
“This is the first new plant construction project Tyson Foods has proposed to build in a number of years and we’re hopeful we can partner with Carroll County and the AEDC to invest in our home state,” said the company’s president of poultry, Noel White.
The existing Green Forest plant produces a variety of partially cooked chicken products for foodservice and retail customers, including nuggets and portioned fillets. The new project, if it goes ahead, would increase the facility’s partially cooked capacity, increasing efficiency by reducing transportation of products to other locations for further processing.
Tyson Foods supplies retail and foodservice customers throughout the US and in approximately 130 countries. The company’s latest financial report, covering 2015, revealed that chicken products command a 27% share of sales revenue, behind beef (41%), but ahead of prepared foods (19%) and pork (11%).
