Sep 9, 2004 12:10 PM, from staff and wire reports

Perdue Farms Inc plans to move production from its Showell MD poultry processing plant to nearby plants as part of a streamlining of its operations. The Showell facility will shut down November 5, when Perdue moves production to a plant near its Salisbury MD headquarters and another plant in Georgetown DE.

Employees will be offered similar hourly positions at the Salisbury and Delaware facilities. The company will provide a temporary shuttle service to take workers to the two plants.

Perdue will retain its contracts with 138 farms that raise chickens to be processed. The firm plans to contract up to 160 new poultry houses by the end of 2005.