TOWN OF WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – A multi-million dollar egg hatchery is coming to Jefferson County.
The company, CWT Farms, joined state, county, and town of Watertown officials for a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday.
The new facility will be a 50-thousand square foot egg hatchery located off State Route 3 in the town of Watertown.
“CWT Farms, based out of Georgia, been there for 60 years, is investing right here over $16 million in Jefferson County, in the north country, creating 20 full-time jobs in New York State, and in Northern New York,” said Steve Hunt, regional director, Empire State Development.
Jefferson County was competing against Ohio and Pennsylvania for the egg hatchery. So why did a Southern-based company choose the north country for its latest facility?
Officials with CWT Farms admit they had their eyes set on Jefferson County from the start.
“The simplest way I could put it is we wanted to be part of this community,” said Jeff Pierce, vice president of marketing and strategic alliances, CWT Farms International. “I found Jefferson County 12 years ago when we were looking to do a similar project with another company and I just fell in love with it.”
On paper, the 2 other locations Jefferson County was competing against may have looked better because each had existing buildings on site.
Instead, choosing Jefferson County means starting from scratch with an empty field. That field is close to Canada where a quarter of the product will go.
“This is by far the biggest investment, at $16 million this company has ever made in one single project and it’s because of the faith and trust we had in the regulatory community here and honestly a love for the people we met when we worked here before,” said Pierce.
Bringing the hatchery to Jefferson County was a nerve-wracking process for the county’s agricultural coordinator, Jay Matteson because constructing a new building means battling supply chain issues.
“It has been just about a year and a half that we’ve been working with CWT Farms to bring this in. To hear this announcement, and hear it’s going to be even bigger than we thought, is very exciting,” he said.
The company is now skipping phase one of its project and going to phase 2, meaning it’ll double its output – hatching 800,000 eggs a week. Pierce gives credit to local officials.
“It comes down to the fact that they were able to help us through economies of scale, keep their pricing at a point where the project became viable by adding volume,” he said.
Construction should begin at the Thousand Islands Business and Agriculture Park within the next few months with it finished by mid-2023.
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