Despite national economic woes, food and beverage processors are moving ahead with more than 70 capital projects involving production plants and distribution centers during the last three months of this year, reports Industrial Info Resources, Sugar Land, Texas. . . .

Chicken processor Sanderson Farms Inc., Laurel, Miss., will move ahead with plans to build a poultry processing complex in Kinston, N.C. Construction will begin this summer with completion and start-up scheduled for the first quarter of 2011 at a cost of $121.4 million. The operation should process 1.25 million birds per week for the retail chill pack market and produce 6.7 million pounds per week of dressed poultry meat, officials said. . . .

To cut costs and improve asset utilization, Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Pittsburg, Texas, said it expects this fall to idle chicken processing plants in Athens, Ala., and at one of its two plants (Oneta Street) in Athens, Ga.