Sanderson Farms Poultry Processing Plant

closed

Sanderson Farms, the fourth largest poultry producer in the US, added a new processing facility to its portfolio in 2011. The facility is located in the city of Kinston, in the Lenoir County of North Carolina state. Sanderson Farms announced its decision to invest in the Kinston plant in April 2008. The original plan was to make the plant operational by August 2009. Sanderson Farms, the fourth largest poultry producer in the US, added a new processing facility to its portfolio in 2011. The facility is located in the city of Kinston, in the Lenoir County of North Carolina state. It includes a poultry processing plant, feedmill and hatchery. Sanderson Farms announced its decision to invest in the Kinston plant in April 2008. The original plan was to make the plant operational by August 2009. The project, however, got delayed due to high grain prices and unfavourable market conditions. It resumed again in July 2009 and was completed in November 2010. The project required an investment of $121m. It is expected to generate more than 1,600 jobs when operating at full capacity. Lenoir County agreed to grant $4.2m in cash and $1.1m for land based on the performance of the facility. The processing complex at Kinston includes a chicken processing plant, a feedmill and a hatchery. Sanderson Farms plans to add a second processing plant and hatchery at the location. The feedmill has, therefore, been designed to meet the feed requirements of two plants and hatcheries. The processing plant has a capacity to handle 1.25 million birds a week. The feedmill produces 8,000 to 10,000t of feed a week in the first phase. The capacity will be enhanced to 20,000t of feed a week in the second phase with the addition of second pellet mill. The capacity expansion will be accomplished in increments of 2,000t over a year, depending on the requirement. A new wastewater treatment plant has been built to serve the new processing plant. The unit consists of four large lagoons and uses a UV system for purification. Sanderson Farms installed fully automated feedmill for the first time at the Kinston site. The complex features state-of-the-art equipment. The feedmill operations are managed from a control room using a software application called Beta Raven. The grain feedstock for the feedmill is being procured mostly from the Midwest. The corn is transported to the facility by the Norfolk-Southern rail line on a 75-car train. Corn is procured from local sources too. The facility can receive 45,000 bushels of grain an hour. The corn is stored in silos and other grains are stored in a turnhead distributor. The facility has two 230,000-bushel silos and one 65,000-bushel silo for corn storage. The turnhead distributor is of Hayes & Stolz make, with 16-bins, having a storage capacity of 3,600t. In addition, it has nine liquid tanks with a total storage capacity of 90,000gal. The whole grain corn is first ground to coarse and fine varieties, respectively for breeder and broiler feeds. The grinding is done in a hammermill of CPM Roskamp Champion make. The ingredients are weighed and then mixed in a 12t mixer of Hayes & Stolz make. The mixture is delivered to an 80t mash bin above the pellet mills if the purpose is pelletisation. Otherwise, it is directed to load-out for use as breeder feed. The feed to be pelleted is passed to a pellet mill through a conditioner. The pellet mill has a rated capacity of 85t/h. The pellets are passed through a cooler and crumbler before loading out into bins. The pellet mill, conditioner, cooler and clumber are of CPM make. Todd & Sargent was the general contractor for construction. TA Loving Company was contracted in April 2010 to build the wastewater treatment plant. The poultry will be sourced from contract growers in and around Kinston. The growers receive the birds, feed and technical assistance from the company, but have to invest on the land, building and care facilities. The plant is expected to require 130 contract growers when running at full capacity. The Kinston site was selected principally for the availability of good contract grower base, sustainable rail connectivity and low environmental concerns.

High