U.S. Gears Up for Multiple Hatchery Projects

Written by Eric Funderburk for IIR News (Sugar Land Texas)

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Summary

Projects at U.S. poultry hatcheries are gearing up for what could be a stronger year in regard to project activity than what was observed in 2025.

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A Volatile Sector

While estimates are still out on exactly how U.S. egg consumption fared in 2025, one thing seems relatively certain--egg consumption remains at quite high levels in comparison with historical trends, and the per capita consumption of chicken has been steadily rising for years. This comes despite things turning south for the industry in 2024 and into 2025. That's when the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) really hit the U.S. poultry and hatchery sectors in a big way, despite circulating throughout the sector for a couple of years.

Flocks were infected or culled, egg production fell, and U.S. egg prices went up. Way up. The peak in prices arrived around early March 2025, when the average price of a dozen eggs was more than $8. However, within a matter of weeks, that price had plummeted, with Forbes reporting by March 18 that the cost of a dozen eggs had fallen from $8.17 per dozen in early March to $4.90 within a week. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) most recent "Egg Markets Overview" newsletter, published December 26, states that average retail prices from a selection of ads showed conventional egg prices averaging $2.39 per dozen, while cage-free offerings rested comfortably above $3 per dozen.

However, while egg prices have declined since their peak earlier this year, HPAI is still very much an ongoing problem. The same USDA newsletter reports year-to-date 2025 numbers of 74 confirmed commercial outbreaks in 2025 in 11 states, resulting in the depopulation of more than 42 million birds last year. Recently, Indiana has been somewhat of a hotbed for the virus, with one of the most recent outbreaks reported at 25,200-layer farm in the north of the state.

Carrying on with Project Activity

Despite the unique ups and downs and uncertainties facing the U.S. poultry and egg sector, companies are gearing up for plenty of projects at hatcheries this year. However, most of these projects are for the downstream production of poultry meat and products, rather than for egg production as a final end.

Industrial Info is tracking more than $183 million worth of projects set to kick off this year at U.S. hatcheries. While not all of these projects will be built as planned, other similar projects will be added throughout the year. Industrial Info tracked less than $40 million worth of projects that started at U.S. hatcheries in a very difficult 2025, so 2026 arrives with suggestions of somewhat stronger activity.

Leading Projects

This year's project activity continues to be strong in Alabama, as it was last year. Ohio also is emerging as a spending leader, but a substantial amount of that state's planned investment is tied up in a project that has been rated by Industrial Info as having a low probability of moving forward as planned.

Alabama's planned 2026 hatchery activity is very much dominated by Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (Greeley, Colorado), a subsidiary of Brazilian multinational food company JBS S.A. (Sao Paulo). Pilgrim's Pride is geared more toward chicken production than egg production, but is very much a large player in the U.S. hatchery sector. The company reported processing an average of more than 162.7 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken each week in 2024.

Pilgrim's has plans to expand two hatcheries in Alabama. Industrial Info expects the expansion of the existing 70,000-square-foot hatchery in Russellville, in the north of the state, to be completed by the end of this year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Project Database can learn more by viewing the project report.

With three hatchery projects expected to kick off this year, Arkansas also emerges as a strong player, primarily because of its own home-grown Tyson Foods Corporation, a leading U.S. protein player headquartered in Springdale, just outside Fayetteville. Like Pilgrim's Pride, Tyson primarily is focused on meat. The company will be performing various upgrades and equipment replacements at its hatchery in Waldron. Tyson will add a new tray washer machine and separator to the plant, which is expected to be completed this summer, while later in the year, Tyson will add robotic stackers and destackers as well as a 60-foot conveyor system. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the related project reports.

Installing a new tray washer also is on the books for Koch Foods Incorporated's (Park Ridge, Illinois) hatchery in Forest, Mississippi. (See project report.) That project pales in comparison to what Koch is doing at its hatchery's downstream plant, in nearby Morton, Mississippi, a little more than 10 miles to the west. While not a hatchery project per se, Koch is pouring more than $140 million into the Morton chicken-processing facility and the expansion of its colocated cold-storage distribution facility. Those projects, which kicked off last year, are expected to be completed in the coming months. Subscribers can read reports on the Morton projects. Koch Foods is unrelated to leading private multisector player Koch Industries.

More Meat-Focused

Other companies, in particular Case Farms (Troutman, North Carolina) and Perdue Farms (Salisbury, Maryland) also are planning fairly significant activity in the U.S. hatchery sector, which when taken into account along with the plans of Pilgrim's, Tyson and Koch Foods, leads to one pointed conclusion: So far, at least this early in the year, none of the major shell egg players seem to have much lined up in the way of expansions or growth. There's very little indication of substantial activity from leading U.S. egg suppliers Cal-Maine Foods (Ridgeland, Mississippi), Rose Acre Farms (Seymour, Indiana) or Hillandale Farms (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania). While purveyors of shell eggs and egg products appear to be observing from the sidelines, most of the major activity apparent at U.S. hatcheries so far this year is very much geared toward the eventual production of poultry meat and products.

Key Takeaways

• Industrial Info is tracking more than $180 million worth of projects planned to begin at U.S. hatcheries this year, although not all of these will be implemented as planned.
• Alabama and Arkansas show fairly significant activity this year.
• Most of the planned hatchery projects come from poultry meat suppliers rather than suppliers of eggs or egg products.

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About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).