Gov. Pete Ricketts was on hand Tuesday to help celebrate the opening of Hendrix Genetics new hatchery in Grand Island.

The $18.5 million facility at 2325 W. Schimmer Drive covers 20 acres in the northeast section of Grand Islands Platte Valley Industrial Park-East.

Along with Ricketts, representatives of Hendrix Genetics from Europe and North America were in attendance. The new hatchery operation will serve 10 percent of the U.S. market demand.

It is a fantastic state-of-the-art facility for this hatchery, said Ricketts, who toured the facility with Nebraska Department of Agriculture Director Greg Ibach.

The governor called the plant a great example of value-added agriculture and how we are going to grow Nebraska.

It is not only a $20 million investment here that will create between 40 to 50 jobs, but it is going to allow area farmers to put up these barns for the eggs that will supply this hatchery and a diversified revenue stream for those farmers who are participating, Ricketts said.

The farmers who are putting up the barns to raise the eggs for Hendrix Genetics will be feeding their layers feed thats coming from out state, he said.

It is an example of how we take a commodity and add value to them in order to grow our state and grow our economy, Ricketts said.

By continuing to focus on value-added agriculture, like with the Hendrix Genetics facility, he said, jobs will be created that will allow the next generation of Nebraskans to remain in the state.

Attending the ceremony was Antoon van den Berg, chief executive officer of Hendrix Genetics.

This is a showcase for the company, van den Berg said.

He said having the facility in Nebraska is important.

It is a big important and high-value market, van den Berg said.

Currently, Hendrix Genetics has 25 percent of the U.S. market.

We needed the facility here to grow markets, van den Berg said.

After searching throughout the U.S. for a location for a new hatchery, he said, the company found that the Grand Island location fitted its goal to expand its market share because of the communitys central location in the U.S. and the fact that it isnt located in a densely populated area for biosecurity.

I think Nebraska has done an excellent job to motivate us to build here, van den Berg said.

Dave Taylor, president of the Grand Island Area Economic Development Corp., said the Hendrix Genetics plant will add 43 jobs and represents a more than $40 million infusion to the area economy.

Taylor said the facility will not only have an economic impact on Grand Island, but Central Nebraska as a whole.

In addition to the main hatchery in Grand Island, 11 outlying barns to support the facility are planned for development within 100 miles of the facility, with eight already in progress or complete.

The barns are located in Buffalo, Fillmore, Franklin, Nuckolls, Merrick, York, Clay and Gosper counties.

It is a very exciting time for us and for our ag economy with the addition of poultry, Taylor said.

The Grand Island Area Economic Development Corp. played a large role in recruiting Hendrix Genetics to Grand Island.

Just being able to hire 43 new people to the area is really exciting, Taylor said.

Serv Hermans, Hendricks Genetics managing director for layers, said the company is pleased to be opening our state-of-the-art layer hatchery in Grand Island.

The city and state offered a number of benefits for our operations, including proximity to our customers and feed sources, strong partnership with local representatives and community incentives, Hermans said. The opening is just the next step in building a long and positive relationship with the Grand Island people and establishing our production hub here in Nebraska to serve the U.S. market with high-quality products.

Hermans said the Grand Island plant will produce enough chickens to produce 10 billion eggs or about 25 eggs per person in the U.S. In 2016, the U.S. consumption was estimated at 268.4 eggs per person.

Hendrix has two other hatcheries in the U.S.

We feel extremely proud here today in this new building so we can contribute to feeding the world, Hermans said.

Hendrix Genetics is a privately held, international multi-species breeding company with activities in layer, turkey, swine, traditional poultry and aquaculture breeding. The layer business unit of Hendrix Genetics breeds pure line layers in seven R&D centers, located in Canada, France and the Netherlands, and produces parent stock of day-old chicks in five main production centers, located in Canada, Brazil, Netherlands, France and Indonesia. Hendrix Genetics is headquartered in Boxmeer, the Netherlands.

The company has more than 2,800 employees and leads the world in turkey, layer and trout breeding. It also has a growing share in swine, salmon and guinea fowl breeding worldwide.

Also attending the ceremony was Doug Metzler, general manager for layers for Hendrix, and Peter Mumm, Hendrix director of business development.

This is a huge development for us, said Metzler. It is a wonderful opportunity. It signals a growing business that is exciting and a great opportunity to be involved in distribution in a new area of the country for us.

He said the Grand Island facility will produce layer hens that will be sold to Hendrix customers to produce table eggs and eggs for the food product industry.

The fertile eggs will come from the 11 area farmers that Hendrix has contracted with as soon as they are hatched. Hendrix provides the producers with the breeding stock.

Once the freshly laid eggs come to the plant, theyre incubated for 21 days in the facility. When the baby chicks are hatched, they are distributed to Hendrix customers for their own operations to produce eggs for the industry.

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Hendrix Genetics opens new hatchery in Grand Island | Agriculture ... - Grand Island Independent