News

Construction underway on Nebraska chicken plant; grower signup continues

Construction is underway on Costco’s 300-million dollar chicken processing plant in Fremont, Nebraska. The plant is scheduled to begin operations in the spring of 2019.

In the meantime, the process of recruiting growers continues.

“The grower signup and recruitment has been excellent. We’ve had plenty of interest and plenty of people to sign applications,” says project manager Walt Shafer with Lincoln Premium Poultry. “We’re now moving forward with site visits. That means that once that’s complete, they move forward with gathering estimates for the work, getting the financing in place, and getting the construction contract initiated.”

Shafer says they need 100 to 125 growers with commitments to build 400 poultry houses. He says he wants to have grower signup complete by the end of this year.

“What that does for us and the growers is it gives them time to get the permitting done, meet with their county representatives and do everything they need to do,” he says, “because our first houses won’t be built until next summer, and really the bulk of the houses won’t be constructed until late 2018 or early 2019.”

All growers will be located within 60 miles of the plant.

The plant will process two million chickens per week to be sold at Costco stores.

AUDIO: Walt Shafer