Poultry plant near Baghdad reopens

In an area southwest of Baghdad once known as an export center for agricultural products, a chicken processing plant that reopened recently could provide jobs for 150 people and help resurrect industry in the area, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The plant is the only one in the area that performs all stages of processing, from slaughter to packaging and freezing, said a U.S. Army official.
The Mahmudiyah Poultry Association, an Iraqi organization, spearheaded the project, asking the United States for help in re-establishing the local poultry value chain. Army soldiers began work on rebuilding the plant in March 2008, four years after it closed because of poor facility conditions and fewer poultry producers.
The processing plant is not the only aspect of the poultry value chain project. Michael Clayton, senior advisor for the provincial reconstruction team, said, “We’ve taught the farmers husbandry methods that allow them to produce a market-weight chicken in 35 days, a process that used to take them 55 to 60 days to accomplish.”
“The key to this project is sustained capacity building for when the Army is gone,” said Juan Alsace, team leader of the USDA’s embedded provincial reconstruction team. “The infrastructure was here; we just had to refurbish what was already in place.”