One of the biggest hi-tech meat processing plants in South India is coming up in the district.
Kudappanakkunnu will soon be home to a state-of-the-art poultry meat processing plant which will have the capacity to process 16,000 chickens a day.
The fully-automatic, zero-waste facility is a project of the state government-undertaking Kerala State Poultry Development Corporation (KEPCO) and will come up on the KEPCO land at Kudappanakkunnu which already houses its poultry farms.
Tenders will be floated for the construction of the Rs 3.5-crore, 8,000 square feet facility this week, KEPCO managing director V Sunil Kumar said. ‘’The plant will be able to process 8,000 birds in two shifts every day. Every bird that goes into the plant will come out as an edible chicken product. The plant will have an in-built meat rendering plant as well as freezer facilities,’’ he said.
The advantage of the plant is that no part of a chicken will be allowed to go to waste. Waste products, including intestines and bones, will be converted into pet food and sold. ‘’It will be a no-waste, no-pollution setup,’’ KEPCO chairman K Padmakumar said.
KEPCO has decided to set up the plant in view of the increased demand for chicken and chicken products in the state. KEPCO figures also show that the chicken population in the state has grown from 75.44 lakh in 2006-07 to 90 lakh in 2010-11. ‘’We are in the process of increasing the number of KEPCO hatcheries and integrated poultry farms across the state,’’ Padmakumar said.