K&N's Foods, a Pakistan-based poultry company, is progressing with its efforts to convert a former Birds Eye vegetable processing plant into a poultry plant in Fulton, N.Y. K&N's Foods has yet to process any poultry products in the facility it purchased in 2013, but it has already employed 43 people in the Fulton community.
The plant in Fulton is K&N's Foods' first facility in the U.S. When K&N's Foods receives approval from the USDA to begin operations, possibly by the spring of 2014, it will begin making Halal chicken products like nuggets, sausages and cold cuts. Adil Sattar, CEO of K&N's Foods USA, told WRVO Public Media the company plans to sell its food to specialty stores, supermarkets and foodservice companies in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Sattar said there is currently a dearth of options currently available in those locations.
K&N's Foods has invested more than $5 million into the building it purchased from Pinnacle Foods. When the poultry plant is open and running at full-capacity, the company expects to employ 183 workers.
The Fulton facility is one of two plants shuttered by Pinnacle Foods with a possible future in poultry processing. Allen Harim Foods is in talks with Pinnacle, hoping to convert the former Vlassic pickle plant in Millsboro, Del. into a poultry plant.
