The J.M. Smucker Company plans to build its third production facility in Scottsville, KY. This $51-million facility will produce Smucker’s Uncrustables, a line of thaw-and-serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Smucker expects to break ground in spring 2003 and begin production in 2004, bringing 150 new jobs to the area.

Grupo Modelo selected CH2M Hill to lead the first phase in the building of its new malting plant in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Designed to start malt production in early 2005, the plant is scheduled to receive and store barley in September 2004. After completion it will have the capability to produce 100,000 metric tons of barley malt per year.

Erie Foods International Inc., a producer of milk protein products, expects to complete a $181 million, 100,000 square-foot Intermodal railport project in Rochelle, IL, this summer. The facility will handle almost 1,000 ocean-going and over-the-road container shipments a day.

Ocean Mist has selected Ausonio Construction to expand its 80,000 square-foot refrigerated cold space next to its headquarters in Castroville, CA. Twenty-five thousand square-feet of additional space will accommodate two rooms. Construction on the facility began on December 1, 2002 and is expected to be complete by mid-April 2003. The expansion will enable Ocean Mist to convert raw products into finished goods such as tray pack artichokes and shrink-wrapped broccoli in a completely refrigerated environment. New pressure cooling tunnels will increase capacity by 25 percent for cauliflower and other value pack cooling.

Farmer-owned Dakota Layers Cooperative in Flandreau, S.D. has begun construction on an egg laying and egg processing plant facility. Construction has begun after three years of planning.