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Fair Oaks Foods is Bringing the Bacon

A Wisconsin company is going to build a plant in the Quad Cities to make bacon. On Tuesday, Fair Oaks Foods announced it chose Davenport after starting with a list of 177 possible locations.

The company wants to increase its meat processing capacity and will hire nearly 250 people when the plant opens in two years.

COO Joseph Freeda
WVIK News

The Chief Operating Officer, Joseph Freda says the plant will process bacon.

"We bring in raw bellies, we brine them, inject them. We smoke them, press them, slice them, cook them, package them. Put them in a box and out to our customers."

The company, based in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin had many options for where to build its new plant, but Freda says they chose Davenport because of its central location with and skilled workforce.

Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce Interim CEO, Mike Oberhaus, emphasized the economic impact this will have on the community.

"The project's expected to have 182 million dollar annual economic impact into our region. One of the largest projects our region has come to be."

Fair Oaks plans to break ground sometime this summer and hopes to open the plant in 2024.

Fair Oaks Farms Logo

The city is expected to provide support for the project with money from a Tax Increment Financing district. The state of Iowa will be asked for a sales tax refund on the construction materials.

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Susanna Kemerling is WVIK Quad Cities NPR's 2022 Fellowship Host/Reporter. She graduated from Northern Illinois University for Media Studies in Communication and spent the last year working as a Teaching Assistant through the graduate program at NIU.