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.