Co-Packing Plant Could Bring Many Jobs

DAYTON—At their regular meeting on Oct. 14, the Port of Columbia Commissioners heard from representatives of Walla Walla Natural Foods, Inc. about that firm’s plans to establish a co-packing facility on Port land.

Fruits and vegetables in jars would be processed at the facility, they heard, and opportunities would be given to other farmers to use the facility.

According to Murray Eggers, co-owner/operator of Walla Walla Natural Foods, Inc., Americans need healthy, natural foods that are hard to get at the grocery store.

“The healthiest eating is food out of grandma’s root cellar,” he said.

Eggers told Port officials that his plans call for two 28,000 sq. ft. buildings to be built, one for production and one for storage, and that he hopes to be in operation by the time the sweet onion harvest begins in June, 2016.

Eggers said that one hundred jobs will be initially created, fifty of them full-time with benefits. He hopes to add two more processing lines the following year, creating a total of three to five hundred jobs.

“These jobs will have a liveable wage starting at $13.50 per hour, he said.

Eggers and his partners are no strangers to food production or to farming. Eggers’ family has been a farming family in the Walla Walla area for over one hundred years, he said.

“I’ve been a part of this area,” said Eggers.

“It’s all ag. We want to bring the best quality you have here and put it in a jar,” he added.

Eggers said that he and his team used the commercial kitchen at Blue Mountain Station in August to process two of their sweet onion products with the Walla Walla Natural Food label. One is a sweet-hot salsa made from 100% Walla Walla Sweet onion and the other is a BBQ salsa. They are sold in retail stores in Portland, Tri-Cities, Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater.

Eggers said it is his firm’s intention to purchase the land from the Port for the new facility. Port commissioners have seen Eggers’ preliminary plan for the plant design and are eager to bring the company on board.

Port Manager Jennie Dickinson told Eggers that the Port officials would look into the best location for the buildings, perform a traffic analysis and help obtain building permits.