Burley says new chicken plant will bring 1,000 jobs to area

BURLEY - A massive chicken-processing plant proposed in Burley will create 1,000 new jobs within 18 months, the city's economic development director said Friday.

Magic Valley Poultry International, an amalgamation of several companies and investors, intends to begin building the plant in Burley this summer and expects to begin operating it within 18 months.

About 200 people attended a meeting at Burley High School's Little Theater Friday afternoon.

Doug Manning, Burley's economic development director and former mayor, said he was approached about the project 11 years ago. "I thought they were crazy," he said. "I still think they're crazy, but I'm convinced they can do what they say they can do."

The numbers involved with the project are significant.

Manning said the operation could process 12,600 chickens per hour and employ 1,000 people. Yearly payroll would be about $30 million, he said.

One of the investors in the project is Bill Pingree, a former assistant to President Reagan and now a professor of European politics at the University of Utah.

Pingree insisted the plant, which would be located on 83 acres near Burley High School owned by Twin Falls developer Jim Primm, would do nothing to diminish the quality of life in the city.

Pingree quoted Winston Churchill and Walt Whitman, and dropped the names of Reagan and Elie Wiesel at Friday's meeting.

He showed graphs that demonstrated the drastic increase in poultry produced in America since 1955 and how, compared to other meats, poultry is relatively inexpensive.

"Food is something that is going to be continually needed," Pingree said, "and the demand for protein is huge … We have the opportunity to really feed the world from here - or at least California."

He assured the crowd that chickens would be processed disease-free and that, if the community supports the project, it will, paraphrasing Whitman, "contribute a verse to the powerful play of life."

Manning focused on the economic benefits.

"We believe Magic Valley Poultry will do for the Mini-Cassia area what Micron did for Boise - only they won't have to outsource chickens from China or Taiwan or reinvent the chicken every six months," Manning said.

Pingree said poultry is an in-demand product and compared it to others in the area.

"You have an ethanol plant here," he said, referring to the shuttered Pacific Ethanol plant. "The demand for corn caused many third-world people to starve. That's a verse I don't think we want to contribute."

Primm - along with three city council members, Manning, and Cassia County Commissioner Paul Christensen - visited a similar plant in Arkansas last month.

"This will be the first fully integrated plant in the United States," Primm said. "What that means is you have no waste."

Chicken feet from the plant will be shipped to China, he said. The manure will be used as fertilizer.

He said that "everything but the cluck" will be used.

Everyone at the meeting emphasized that the project will bring in significant numbers of other businesses such as restaurants, bars, and housing. Manning said that up to $100 million could circulate yearly in the region as a result of the plant's presence.

"We're in a world of hurt economically, and it's my belief that foodstuffs are going to become more important," venture capitalist Dan Sundahl said. "We're going to make a big gamble on Burley."

Everybody who spoke at the meeting said local businesses will be involved building the plant, which will include the construction of 3.5 million square-feet of facilities within a year and a half.

Referring to the Arkansas trip, Manning said the plant didn't stink and added, "I did not see one feather in town … I have no hesitation or misgivings."

Damon Hunzeker can be reached at dhunzeker@magicvalley.com or 208-677-8764.