CREAL SPRINGS – Saline River Farms, located on Illinois 166 in Creal Springs, will hold a groundbreaking for its USDA processing facility Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Saline River Farms officials will be joined by Gov. JB Pritzker, State Ag Director Jerry Costello and State Sen. Dale Fowler for the groundbreaking.

The company announced last September that an 83,000 square-foot USDA Beef and Pork processing facility will be located on Illinois 166 in Creal Springs. The facility will use the latest processing technology and automation. It is projected to process over 40 million pounds of beef and over 19 million pounds of pork annually. The company will invest over $87 million into local agriculture over the next year. Last November, the company received a $6.8 million grant from the USDA for use in developing the processing plant.

The company will provide wholesale beef and pork processing services, consumer beef and pork processing services, direct to consumer mail order meat distribution and will have an on-premises retail store. The company will distribute products under several different labels.

Officials say the facility is expected to create 400 jobs for southern Illinois.