The State of Alabama has awarded a $200,000 grant that will help supply infrastructure for a Koch Foods expansion project.
Koch Foods is constructing a new feed mill and distribution center in Attalla, Alabama as part of an $80 million expansion of its operations in Etowah County.
Alabama Kay Ivey announced that Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds will be used to supply water to the Koch Foods facilities, and the Attalla Water Works Board is providing $122,700 for the project.
“Agriculture has and always will play a vital role in Alabama’s economy,” Ivey stated in a press release. “The (facility) will employ about 30 people, and the impact of the new mill is even farther reaching and will result in many related new jobs throughout the county and region.”
The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) is administering the grant from funds made available by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
A groundbreaking ceremony for the feed mill project was held in November 2019. During that time, it was announced that the new feed mill will have the capacity to hold more than 1 billion bushels of corn, served directly by rail.
The new mill will support Koch Foods’ poultry plant in nearby Gadsden, which recently underwent an $80 million expansion that included the addition of a fourth processing line.
At the time the feed mill groundbreaking ceremony was held, it was announced that the feed mill was expected to become operational in the fall of 2021.
Koch Foods, headquartered in Park Ridge, Illinois, is the fifth largest poultry company in the United States, having produced 60.74 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis in 2019. According to the WATTAgNet Top Companies Database, the company operates eight slaughter plants, four further processing plants, seven hatcheries and five feed mills.
