Peco Foods, Inc.

Peco Foods, Inc. operates a poultry plant at 4114 Highway 67 South in Pocahontas, Randolph County, Arkansas, under USDA FSIS establishment number P45483. The federal record lists the plant for poultry slaughter and poultry processing, with poultry as the species slaughtered under inspection. FSIS classifies the establishment as large and places it in slaughter volume category 5.0, the highest of the reported volume bands. The grant of inspection on file is dated October 20, 2021. No custom-exempt activity is reported to FSIS.

Peco Foods is headquartered at 1101 Greensboro Avenue in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The company website describes a fourth-generation, family-owned poultry business founded in 1937 by John Herman Hickman, with more than 7,500 team members and 20 facilities across the Southeast, including operations in Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. The company describes a vertically integrated model covering hatchery, feed, live production and processing, and a history of contract farming arrangements in which the company supplies chicks, feed and a market while growers supply housing and labor.

The website markets to industrial, retail, foodservice and international buyers rather than to walk-in customers. Named product categories include par-fry, individually frozen, mechanically separated chicken, wings, deboned boneless white and dark meat, marination, bag and blast, and bone-in dark meat. Sourcing programs listed include conventional, no antibiotics ever, and vegetarian-fed. Nothing in the sources describes retail sales, custom processing for individual farms, or hours at the Pocahontas location, so details beyond the federal record and the corporate website are not yet on file for this site.

The Pocahontas plant reports poultry slaughter and processing to FSIS and reports no custom-exempt activity, meaning it is not listed as doing custom kill and cut for individual owners. The company website describes a vertically integrated model built on contract growing, in which Peco historically supplied chicks, feed and a market while farmers supplied housing and labor. The sources do not state booking procedures, minimums, fees, or whether the Pocahontas facility is contracting growers, and the website directs live production and supplier inquiries to corporate contacts in Tuscaloosa.

Peco Foods, Inc. operates under a federal grant of inspection, so product from this plant can be sold anywhere in the United States, which matters if you sell online or across a state line. FSIS does not list a custom-exempt activity for this plant.

The sources do not describe a retail counter, halves or quarters, bundles, online ordering, delivery, or shipping to households at the Pocahontas plant. Peco Foods presents itself as a supplier to quick-service restaurants, casual dining, retail supermarkets, clubs, specialty stores and international markets, so its products would generally reach households through grocery and restaurant channels rather than direct sale at the plant.

If you are buying a half or quarter animal, the plant is where the animal is processed; the farm sells you the animal. Read how to buy a half cow for the sequence and the math.