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State of Illinois ready to assist any potential Joslin beef plant buyer

The director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture says the state’s beef industry is still recovering from last month’s abrupt closure of a Tyson packing plant in Joslin.

Jerry Costello says if Tyson agrees to sell the plant, the state is ready to offer incentives through the Invest in Illinois Fund to any potential buyer.

“When you get a shutdown like a Tyson plant in Joslin, which has 2,500 employees, they’re processing 3 to 5,000 animals in a week, it’s a major hit to cattlemen across the state,” he says.

He tells Brownfield, “They’ve agreed to honor the contracts that were out but going from eight buyers in the state of Illinois down to two, that’s a major situation because that’s a big hit for our cattlemen and women, and it does affect the price that they receive per head.”

Costello says the state wants to return the facility to a regional processing hub for cattle producers across the Midwest so it can continue to be an agricultural and economic driver.

“They are evaluating the plant right now, trying to decide if they want to turn it into a poultry or a pork processing plant, or if they would sell it as is.”  He says, “And ‘as is’ being a key term, it would be important to have something that’s intact and hopefully usable.”

He says state officials are working with local and regional partners to identify potential operators for the facility, but the state has not committed to a specific company, or a specific amount of money, tied to the fund.

AUDIO: Jerry Costello – Illinois Department of Agriculture