The Smithfield Packing Company Inc. plans to shift bone-in ham production from its Landover, Maryland, plant to its facilities in North Carolina and Kentucky.
The incentive package would give Sanderson Farms land valued at $1.2 million and annual cash payments worth nearly 40 percent of the property taxes paid by the company on all buildings, improvements and equipment each year for 15 years.
Expected to begin production in January 2014, the new plant will initially employ 360 people and has the potential of adding significantly more employees with a second shift.
The upgrade is to assure that the company continues to lead the industry in quality control procedures by taking advantage of the latest and most advanced techniques available.
The investors behind the proposed beef plant in Tama, Iowa, are hoping to have the facility up and running by June, though the plant's owners say that renovations are still ongoing and that more startup capital is needed.
