Burley/Heyburn Dehydrated Potato Plant to open early this year

An Oregon-based potato company is on pace to open a new dehydrated potato processing plant in Heyburn, Idaho, early this year.

The facility will produce dehydrated potato flakes and other dehydrated potato products on a site near the former J.R. Simplot Co. frozen french fry plant.

The plant is under construction, and the company hopes to have it up and running this spring or early summer, a manager for the project said.

Oregon Potato Co. will operate the plant under the name Gem State Processing.

The private grower-owned company operates potato processing plants at Boardman, Ore., as well as Warden and Pasco, Wash. This is its first plant in Idaho.

The plant will operate 24 hours per day, seven days a week, according to a permit application filed with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.