TONGANOXIE, Kan. (AP) — Tyson Foods Inc. will invest $320 million in a new chicken-processing Plant in northeastern Kansas employing 1,600 people so that it can keep up with a growing consumer demand for fresh poultry, the company and state officials announced Tuesday.

Kansas offered the company a package of incentives "appropriate to a project of this size" to attract the plant, said Kevin Doel, a spokesman for the state Department of Commerce.

"We believe this new operation, which will incorporate the latest production technology, will enable us to meet the sustained growth in consumer demand for fresh chicken," Tyson President and CEO Tom Hayes said in a statement.

It and state and local officials project that the plant's payroll, payments to farmers and purchases of feed and utilities will total $150 million a year.

Doug Ramsey, the company's group president for poultry, said eastern Kansas is "the right location" for a new plant because of the availability of grain and labor and because the state has a "top-notch" transportation system.