Smithfield Foods has submitted a petition to expand their processing facility in Sioux Falls. That’s welcome news for the state’s pork industry. South Dakota Pork Producer Council’s Executive Director Glenn Muller says it’s an exciting development for the company, the producers and the state as a whole.

He says the expansion will be beneficial for pork producers in the upper Midwest region.

Muller says the timing of the expansion is good especially with the tough economic conditions faced by agriculture and recent trade uncertainty created by tariffs at the national level.

Smithfield is a wholly owned subsidiary of W.H. group of China and owns over 500 farms in the United States. The company also contracts with 2,000 independent pork producers across the country.