LINCOLN, NEB. ? The Farmland pork plant in Crete will become the Midwest flagship operation for Virginia-based Smithfield Foods Inc., an executive with the company said Monday at a public hearing.

The 1,000-employee plant that Smithfield is acquiring will remain open, said Dick Poulson, the company’s executive vice president. He made that promise during a hearing attended by the attorneys general of Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas.

Poulson said he hoped to allay fears that Smithfield would close the plant, which is a major employer in Crete, a town of around 6,000 people 20 miles southwest of Lincoln.

If anything, Poulson said, Smithfield planned to expand the Crete plant’s operations.

Smithfield is taking over Farmland Industries Inc.’s pork division through an agreement worked out in federal bankruptcy court. Smithfield is paying $367.4 million in cash for almost all the pork division assets of Kansas City, Mo.-based Farmland.