Nebraska could bid for Tyson chicken plant after Kansas squawking stalls project

Opposition to a big Tyson chicken plant in Kansas could be an opening for Nebraska to recruit the project.

Nebraska economic development officials wouldn’t say whether they’re making a pitch to meat giant Tyson Foods for its project, which appears to be on shaky ground in Kansas. But Nebraska’s success luring Costco’s chicken processing plant — now under construction in Fremont — helps lay the groundwork to bring more chicken operations here, site-selection expert John Boyd told The World-Herald.

“It invites other companies to look at Nebraska,” he said.

And he thinks Tyson will look here.

“I suspect they’re going to leave Kansas in the dust and look for another low-cost, right-to-work place in the Midwest,” said Boyd, with Princeton, New Jersey-based The Boyd Co. “Nebraska makes perfect sense.” (Right-to-work refers to laws in states that don’t require employees of unionized workforces to automatically join the union or pay its dues; Nebraska and Kansas are such states.)

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