AUGUSTA – The state’s poultry growers reached a milestone Wednesday when members of a cooperative signed the official licensure papers for Maine’s only state-inspected poultry processing facility.

Two years in the planning, the facility was made possible through money from the state Department of Agriculture. It will fill a need for hundreds of Maine farmers.

“We will handle 5,000 to 11,000 birds annually,” Rep. Nancy Smith, D-Monmouth, told the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee. The facility is on Smith’s farm, where among other livestock she raises free-range turkeys.

Smith said the processing fee will be $3.75 per chicken, which adds to the affordability of the process. “Every bird, every carcass will be inspected, not just the premises,” Smith said. “This will provide a good level of security for the consumer.”

Smith said that although the facility meets the same standards as big ones elsewhere, the meat will not be allowed to be sold outside Maine because of federal regulations limiting state meat inspection programs.

Smith said that four farms originally banded together and formed the Cooperative Poultry Processors, or COOPP.

For the past four years Maine has not had a legal state-inspected poultry processing facility. Through a planning grant that stated the need was great and then another grant that actually bought the processing unit, COOPP was able to put together the facility.

Smith said the trailer consists of a kill room and a processing room, has a loading dock and a 12-foot walk-in cooler large enough to hold 100 turkeys a day. “We met the state standards creatively,” Smith said, by placing a camper on-site that acts as the inspector’s office and bathroom.

“I compliment you on this project,” Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, told Smith. “This has been an annual crisis issue for poultry processors for years.”

Smith told the committee that three farmers were already scheduled to bring fowl to the facility this morning for slaughter.