A Delaware Superior Court judge again ruled in favor of Allen Harim Foods and Sussex County, Delaware, in a court case filed against the two by residents who wanted to stop the poultry company from opening a poultry plant there.
The poultry company had since abandoned its plans to build a poultry plant in Millsboro, Delaware, but that did not keep the plaintiffs from continue with their lawsuit against Allen Harim and the county.
The suit was initially filed as the plaintiffs claimed that Sussex County officials failed to ask the Environmental Protection Agency and the Center for the Inland Bays for their opinions on Allen Harim’s proposal. The opponents also argued that the public had not been given sufficient notice of the plans.
The court in July ruled in favor of Allen Harim, but the group of county residents and environmentalists to file the suit appealed the ruling. On February 29, the judge upheld the original ruling, according to a report from Delawareonline.
Allen Harim’s original plans were to convert a former Vlasic pickle plant it purchased from Vlasic parent company Pinnacle Foods into a poultry plant. However, in late 2015 Allen Harim announced that it was abandoning those plans, and would instead use some of the building for storage and would seek to lease the remaining space.
Allen Harim Foods, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, processed 5.96 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken in 2014 and ranks 21st among the top broiler companies in the United States. The company is headquartered in Seaford, Delaware.
