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Is Nebraska in the running for Tyson’s chicken plant?

The executive director of the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska (A-FAN) says her organization would welcome the opportunity to work with Tyson Foods to find a suitable location for a chicken processing plant in Nebraska.

Kristen Hassebrook was reacting to an Omaha World-Herald report that Tyson may consider Nebraska after being rejected by officials in Leavenworth County, Kansas.

“I can’t comment on any specifics, but as a state we’re always excited about opportunities where our row crop and livestock industries intersect and can really make for a great opportunity for Nebraska and farmers and livestock producers,” Hassebrooks says.

A Tyson Foods spokesman told Brownfield he had no comment on the World-Herald report. As of midday Monday, neither the Nebraska Department of Economic Development nor Nebraska Department of Agriculture had responded to Brownfield’s request for comment.

Tyson’s plan to build a 320 million dollar poultry complex in eastern Kansas have been put on hold after Leavenworth County commissioners withdrew their pledge to provide financial incentives for the plant. That decision came after public protests about the plant’s possible impact on the area’s air and water quality.

As a result, Tyson says it will look at other possible locations for the facility.

“The Tyson plant would be very exciting and I’m sure there’s lots of folks looking at it,” Hassebrook says. “A-FAN will be very supportive of whatever direction the state wants to go as they evaluate opportunities that fit with what our development looks like.”

As proposed, the Tyson project is similar to the Costco chicken plant being built in Fremont, Nebraska. Tyson plans to build a feed mill and chicken hatchery and would contract with local farmers to raise the birds.

It hopes to have the plant in production by the middle of 2019.

AUDIO: Kristen Hassebrook