SALEM, Ohio — Tri-State Beef, a plant capable of processing around 500 head a day, has its eyes set on Gallia County.
Tri-State Beef, a subsidiary of Dae Kyung Oil and Transportation Co., announced in October it was considering a site in the Dan Evans Industrial Park in Bidwell, Ohio, for a $40 million beef slaughter, packaging and advanced protein processing facility. Ohio was selected from four states vying for the plant.
The processing plant project will create 250 jobs when it is constructed. It is expected to generate $6.9 million in annual payroll by 2018. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority has approved a 55 percent, six-year job creation tax credit for the project.
Tri-State Beef currently operates a processing plant in Cincinnati.
John Grimes, Ohio State University Extension beef coordinator, said the project is a serious effort underway in Gallia County and he is optimistic it will happen. He added there are no processing plants of this size operating in Ohio.
“I think this project involves good people and state-of-the-art equipment,” Grime said.
Grimes said the impacts on the beef industry will be felt not just in Ohio but across the region, explaining Tri-State Beef will give cattlemen a market for cull cattle that didn’t exist before, and will not just impact the beef market but the dairy cattle market as well.
“If it comes to fruition, it’s a game changer,” said Grimes.
The project is currently in the design phase, and the company is expected to break ground on the facility sometime in 2015.
