For sale: One large industrial property formerly operated as a meat plant in Plainview.
On Friday, Cargill announced it had officially placed its formerly idle plant on the market.
In a statement, Cargill cites the drought and the impact the Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) has had on cattle supplies.
It also cites the uproar the previous year over finely-textured beef, or pink slime.
“For the past two-and-a-half years, we’ve closely monitored the cattle supply in the U.S., hoping for a faster recovery from the drought,” said John Keating, president of Cargill’s Wichita, Kansas-based beef business. “We don’t see conditions in the Texas Panhandle improving to the point where it would make sense to reopen our Plainview beef plant, especially with excess processing capacity remaining in the region.”
The plant was first idled Feb. 1, 2013.