A North Carolina-based, multi-generational family-owned company revealed itself as the owners of what will be a 240 million dollar pork processing facility in Mason City Iowa. Prestage Farms says pending the finalization of state approvals, they plan to build a state-of-the-art, 650-thousand square foot facility on land in the southern part of the community. The first phase of the project will employ around one-thousand people, with the second phase employing a total of two-thousand workers. Ron Prestage, says Mason City is the type of community they were looking for to expand their operation.
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Prestage, who is a veterinarian, says the independent producer relies on getting the best price for his pork — and his company’s plant might end up being the best value to those producers.
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Prestage says it will be one of the biggest projects in his company’s history. The only other processing plant they own is a turkey plant in North Carolina.
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Governor Terry Branstad says the plant represents a great opportunity for the state’s pork producers to capture a greater share of the food dollar. He says rather than shipping live hogs out of state for processing, this plant will allow Prestage Farms to add value to hogs here in Iowa. Groundbreaking on the plant is expected to take place later this year, with the plant being operational in 2018.