Smithfield Foods announced a $1.3 billion investment over the next three years to build a new state of the art packaged meat and fresh pork processing facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
New Facility, New Location
Smithfield Food president and CEO Shane Smith says the plant will be located on the northwest edge of Sioux Falls in Foundation park and will replace their 115 year old downtown facility, which had become outdated.
He says the investment is contingent on securing the required permits and regulatory approvals, but the facility will be located at the intersection of two major interstates and provides rail access.
“The new facility will be the most modern of its kind in the U.S., featuring an advanced automation technology and IT systems. It will be the largest combined packaged meats and fresh pork processing facility in Smithfield’s network with more than 1.1 million square feet of production space and will deliver efficiency gains to Smithfield’s fresh pork and package meats operations.”
Smithfield Plant Packs Huge Economic Punch
Smith says this investment will have a huge economic impact on the region.
“We process more than 28 million hogs annually in the U.S. and 10,000 hog farms located in 30 states produce and raise the pigs that we harvest. The vast majority of the hogs that we process here in Sioux Falls are raised by independent hog producers in South Dakota and the surrounding states.”
Smithfield also purchases 130 million bushels of corn and wheat, and 1 million tons of soybean meal annually according to Smith. That accounts for almost 1% of the U.S. annual corn crop and 2% of the typical US soybean meal production.
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