Mountaire Farms Inc. only negligibly increased its production from 2017 to 48.97 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken weekly in 2018, making it the sixth-largest chicken producer in the U.S.
Mountaire planned to expand its operations in 2018 by building a new $44 million feed mill in North Carolina.
The company faced some environmental-related challenges in 2017 that continued into 2018. In April 2018, Mountaire was granted a permit from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) to store sludge at its poultry processing facility in Millsboro, Delaware, to try to resolve earlier environmental concerns related to the facility. In June 2018, the company and the Delaware DNREC entered into a consent decree that fined the company and required it to find an alternative water source for residents near the plant.
