ConAgra Foods, Inc., Omaha, Neb., announced plans to expand its Lamb Weston Boardman, Ore., facility. The $30 million investment will add additional processing capacity for making formed products such as hash brown patties and potato puffs.

Construction on the state-of-the-art processing line is expected to begin in the spring, with completion in 2017. The new line will increase processing capacity by approximately 50 million pounds once complete, and is expected to add 50 jobs.

“With the frozen potato category growing globally, we have tremendous opportunity to support our customers’ growth in the U.S. and around the world,” says Greg Schlafer, president, Lamb Weston, Kennewick, Wash. “To capture that growth, we need to make more products. Expanding our operations in the Columbia Basin—with access to great potatoes, people and ports—just makes sense.”

The facility in Boardman is strategically situated to support domestic and international growth, with proximity to prime growing, storage and shipping operations and easy access to the Port of Morrow, which is located on the Columbia River near Boardman, Ore.

ConAgra Foods opened an initial expansion of the facility in June 2014, adding 300 million pounds of capacity with a new fry line. That $200 million project included plans for this new addition.