Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 12/19/11

Charles City, Iowa-based Cedar River Poultry has hired about 60 people to work in a local processing plant that will process about 50,000 spent hens and ship them to Asia.

General Manager Gary Shank told Meatingplace that the plant is scheduled to open following a USDA inspection Dec. 27.

Cedar River Poultry is owned by two Chinese businessmen, one of whom also owns the 12-year-old meat wholesaler Charles Austin Limited in Chicago.

The company successfully bid for the former Custom Poultry Processing LLC plant, which closed in January 2011 after creditors filed an involuntary petition for bankruptcy.

The plant is capable of processing up to 100,000 birds daily in one shift. Shank said that he expects to employ about 140 people at the facility within three years. The company may add further processing to its business within a few years as well.

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