Stacyville company hopes to take over where Wapsie Produce left off

When Wapsie Produce closed its doors in Decorah earlier this year, a Stacyville, Iowa company saw an opportunity.  Now North Iowa Produce—a new company started by five local investors in northern Iowa—has announced plans for a capon processing plant in the Stacyville Industrial Park.  Company officials say the $1 million project will create 14 jobs.

The 6,000-square-foot plant is expected to open in mid-June.  It will process locally grown capons.  In addition it will do custom processing for local producers.

One of the investors in the plant, Bill Huebsch, said his group had been talking for over a year about building a new processing plant, but the closing of Wapsie Produce pushed up the timeline of the group.  That's because the birds being raised now need to be processed in June.
Huebsch said the next-closest USDA processing center for capons is 280 miles away off Interstate 94 in Ashby, Minnesota, about 100 miles south of Fargo.