A new 70,000 sqare foot frozen food plant is coming to Merced this winter.
The company plans, White Oak Frozen Foods, plans to supply hundreds of jobs and buy locally grown crops.
"We supply ingredients to these companies. For instance tomatoes on the top of this pizza are products that we process," said White Oak Sales Vice President Dan Wilkinson.
The company processes thousands of tons of vegetables every year.
It supplies to major chains including Frito Lay, General Mills, and McDonalds.
White Oak Frozen Foods is part of Cascade Specialities.
Marchini Farms is eyeing the opporunity.
Jeff Marchini is a second generation farmer and
former president of Merced's Farm Bureau. He's been
pushing for more ag businesses.
"The more we can do as far as processing plants..
it's only going to benefit us as farmers. Also, we need more jobs," said Marchini.
The company will hire 120 workers, half of them full time.
There's only one other plant similar to this one in Merced.
City leaders believe it chose Merced because of its proximity to quality crops and qualified workers.
"We have a lot of people unemployed good in line
production. this is going to be a perfect fit for
the community," said Merced Economic Development's Frank Quintero.
The plant is part of Jain Irrigation Systems. It's in 120 countries, and employees thousands of workers.
