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State Sees Pork Industry Expansion

Amy Mayer/IPR file photo

Iowa officials say a new pork processing plant coming to North Iowa will boost the state’s hog industry. Officials announcing a pork processing plant soon to be built near Interstate 35 in the Mason City-Clear Lake area were celebrating the anticipated two-thousand jobs this week.

But Iowa’s Pork Producers Association sees extra capacity.  It says the state’s existing 16-pork processing plants will be straining later this year to accommodate expected large marketings.

Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey also welcomes more capacity.

“We’ve grown a little bit the last few years,” he says. “We have a new plant coming on in Sioux City. That plant will be on in 2017 and running.”

Iowa currently produces 30-million hogs annually, and Northey see more pork plants boosting that.

“It’s also important to have the opportunity to grow in the future, and without additional processing, we’d have a hard time growing,” he says.

Mason City’s new plant, expected to process 10-thousand hogs daily, is projecting opening two years from now.