Tulare
- An L.A. based start-up firm is planning a kosher chicken production
plant in Tulare. The facility is a new 50,000-square-foot “Leed certified”
building on Walnut just south of Bardsley in the Tulare Business Park. The
plant would process up to 100,000 birds a day in what would be the first West
Coast kosher poultry plant.
The new company will be called House of David Poultry.
The project is headed by former Israeli chicken businessman Hillel Shamam, an orthodox Jew who will bring the kosher style of raising and slaughtering chickens for the U.S. market to Tulare.
Shamam told the Voice that demand for kosher products of all kinds has grown in the U.S. in recent years, from chocolate to meats. “We follow the teachings of the Old Testament from thousands of years ago to treat the animal with respect” before it is slaughtered, he says. “That includes raising the chickens in a stress-free environment as range free birds and everything organic as much as possible.”
Shamam says “we discovered Tulare and Tulare discovered us.”
Shamam says the company could open as soon as October and employ 70. “God
willing, we could grow to 250.” He says they plan to build the Leed
certified building using sustainable materials and techniques “because
that's the way I will teach my children to run the business in a way that
is good for the environment.”
“If everybody does that, we will have a better world.”
Shamam says they have already contracted with a number of local ranches to raise the birds and expects all the birds to be raised nearby.
The site will include space for several rabbinical personnel who are key to the operation and will actually have residential units onsite.
“They'd like to be operational by the end of the year,” says Kyle Rhinebeck, the company's Tulare real estate broker. “The plant is a first class operation and will even invite tours in the future to visit the plant.”
The Central Valley is the largest chicken raising area in the state. Nearby Sanger and Porterville each have chicken packaging facilities.
City Planner Bonnie Simoes says the company needs to apply for a conditional use permit and possible general plan amendment to make the zoning M2.
Tulare City Manager Darrel Pyle says the company heard about Tulare because a major meat packing plant was doing an environmental impact report here. That plant, to be located out by the city water treatment facility, is expected to get a planning commission hearing soon. “With the recent closure of meat processing plants in California, there is plenty of demand for modern facilities here,” says Pyle.
Kosher has to do with how food is processed, what food may be eaten with other food and operation of manufacturing facilities that meet kosher dietary standards.
Eating kosher is part of the Jewish religion and tradition related to how an animal is slaughtered, aiming for the most humane way possible. The goal is to raise a stress-free animal. Rabbinical inspectors are always on hand to ensure kosher rules are followed. Some 10 million Americans keep a kosher table including Jews, Muslims, Seventh Day Adventists and an increasingly health-conscious general public who have heard about kosher food. Trader Joe's, for one, features several lines of kosher foods including chicken – but not from the West Coast.
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