Food Processing

Jump ahead to:
Industry Overview
Industry Trends
Food Processing by the Numbers
Cluster Strengths
Cluster Challenges
Key Initiatives
Recent Accomplishments
Cluster Organizations
Cluster Contact
Cluster Events
 

Industry Overview

The Northwest (OR, WA and ID) Food Processing cluster represents a diverse group.  The extended cluster is a mix of commodity producers, specialized niche producers, processors, distributors and packagers.  The Oregon cluster includes 197 companies in the food processing sectors represented by NWFPA membership which meet the size requirements of at least 20 employees or estimated annual sales of $1.0 million or more, but does not include final food preparation at retail supermarkets or other food-related businesses downstream from the initial food processors. The extended cluster includes hundreds of firms that provide supplies and services to the food manufacturing firms in the state.  Food manufacturing (processing) companies—Bakery, Dairy, Fruits and Vegetables, Meat and Poultry, Seafood, Snacks, and Specialty—specialize in products of all types: Canned, Dehydrated, Freeze Dried, Fresh Cut, Frozen, Juice, Organic, Powder, and Puree.  In addition to food processing, the expanded food cluster also includes farm production, packaging and machinery, transportation and warehousing. Concentrations of food processing firms are found in Greater Portland, the Willamette Valley, the Columbia Gorge, the Oregon Coast, and Southern Oregon.

In 2003 Northwest Food Processors Association (NWFPA) responded to unprecedented regional threats in the global marketplace by initiating the nation’s first comprehensive, multi-state initiative and competitive assessment of the food manufacturing cluster.  Support for this program came from three governors, state and regional government, members of Congress, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, industry, educators, and others.

NWFPA’s major goal is to reposition the three-state food processing industry to compete globally through dramatically increased productivity and innovation.  The model is simple: Innovation leads to productivity gains, which lead to global competitiveness, which leads to increased profitability.

Industry Trends

• Market consolidation
• Increased price competition
• Energy supply and prices, including transportation expenses, inflate the cost of delivered goods.
• More global sourcing
• Increasing attention to food safety by regulatory agencies and customers
• Shortage of qualified workers with replacements needed for retiring baby boomers (including engineers, electricians, and mechanical technicians).
• Openness to increased innovation in managing all challenges of the industry

Food Processing by the Numbers 

                                Source: Northwest Food Processors Association

Cluster Strengths

• Access through seaports to the Pacific Rim.
• Hydro-electric infrastructure.
• Northwest pioneering spirit and appetite for risk-taking.
• Farmland exceeding 17.5 million acres in Oregon. 
• Healthy lifestyles, healthy foods, and consistent market demand. 
• Energy management, including partnership with Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Cluster Challenges 

• Energy supply and prices, including transportation expenses, inflate the cost of delivered goods.
• Fresh water supply. 
• Increased regulatory environment.
• Shortage of qualified workers with replacements needed for retiring baby boomers (including engineers, electricians, and mechanical technicians).
• The need for increased innovation in managing all challenges of the industry.

Key Initiatives 

• Support the broad-based education and empowerment of full-spectrum innovation in the food industry. This means developing the industry’s ability to innovate at all levels of business from manufacturing processes and front-line workers to new products and business model innovation. It also means developing collaboration mechanisms to develop cluster-level innovation. This program is currently underway at NWFPA’s Education Research Institute primarily via Oregon Inc’s previous and current biennia grants.  The food processing cluster’s top priority initiative of innovation was presented by Jon Marshall, Program Director of Northwest Food Processors Education & Research Institute (ERI) at the Oregon Cluster Network meeting on November 9, 2010. (This cluster innovation program is adaptable to other clusters as well as individual companies.)

• Implementing 25 percent energy intensity reduction in 10 years.
• Increasing the industry's operation productivity.
• Developing a robust workforce pipeline.
• Developing an industry-wide sustainability process.
• Building an economic distress strategy.
• Collaborating on transportation strategies.
• Exploring international markets for Oregon food products.

Recent Accomplishments

• NWFPA has signed a 10 year MOU with U.S. Department of Energy to reduce energy intensity (btu’s / pound) by 25% in 10 years. A sophisticated baseline of production and energy use has been developed by NWFPA – the first food industry trade association in the U.S. to do so.
• As part of the state’s 2007-09 Innovation Plan, Oregon InC invested $3.4 million in funding as a catalyst to jumpstart the NWFPA Education & Research Institute / Innovation Productivity Center (ERI). In 2009-11, Oregon InC invested an additional $1.6 million investment to further the successes of this industry-led initiative. NWFPA President David Zepponi and his team responded with these exceptional returns on the state’s investments:
  • 468 jobs retained or created directly by ERI
  • Continued growth of Oregon’s food processing industry in a recession (the only manufacturing sector in Oregon to show positive gain.)
  • $13.1 million in operations savings by Oregon food processors through direct efforts of ERI to increase output at lower cost.

Cluster Organizations

Oregon food processors are formally organized as part of Northwest Food Processors Association, a regional trade association, with processor members also in Washington and Idaho.

Notable Oregon companies include: Agrigsystems International, Ajinomoto Frozen Foods, Amy's Kitchen, Annie's Naturals, Birds Eye Foods, Boardman Foods, Bolthouse Farms, Bridgetown Bakery, ConAgra Foods, DePaul Industries, Draper Valley Farms, Everfresh Fruit, Foster Farms, National Frozen Foods, NORPAC Foods, Oregon Freeze Dry , Oregon Fruit Products, Pacific Seafood Company, RainSweet, Inc., Richmond Bakery, Smith Frozen Foods, Tree Top (formerly Sabroso), Truitt Bros., and YoCream International.

Cluster activities include the full range of the food manufacturing industry workforce – from job seekers and entry-level employees through the entire management structure, including chief executive officers of global food companies. The extended cluster includes suppliers, education, and government representatives. The following Education and Research Institutions, Non Profit Organizations, and state agencies play a significant role:

Oregon State University offers research programs in Food and Science Technology.  Located within the College of Agricultural Sciences, the Department of Food Science and Technology (FST) offers undergraduate and graduate programs of study. Off campus facilities include the Food Innovation Center in Portland and the Seafood Laboratory in Astoria.  Food Science and Technology has active research initiatives supported by more than $1.9 million in funding.

The Food Innovation Center (FIC) Agricultural Experiment Station is located in Portland. The FIC is a resource for client based product and process development, packaging engineering, shelf life studies, and consumer sensory testing. Research is conducted to develop innovative processing and packaging technologies. The FIC also engages in scholarly research in Agricultural Economics and Marketing. 

NWFPA established the Northwest Food Processors Education Research Institute (ERI) and Innovation Productivity Center (IPC) in 2007 as global centers of excellence funded, in part, by a $3.4 million grant by the Oregon Legislature through the Oregon Innovation Plan.

Oregon Tilth is a nonprofit research and education membership organization dedicated to biologically sound and socially equitable agriculture. Oregon Tilth offers educational events throughout the state of Oregon, and provides organic certification services to organic growers, processors, and handlers internationally.

The Food Alliance works at the juncture of science, business and values to define and promote sustainability in agriculture and the food industry, and to ensure safe and fair working conditions, humane treatment of animals, and careful stewardship of ecosystems.

The Oregon Food Bank is a community-based nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting hunger and its root causes. Food from a variety of sources moves through warehouses to a network of eighteen regional food banks across Oregon and 280 local agencies in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties and in Clark County, Washington. The Oregon Food Bank also makes more efficient use of foods, with volunteers gleaning unharvested food from farmers’ fields and distributing some of it through its distribution system.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has a mission 1) to ensure food safety and provide consumer protection; 2) to protect the natural resource base for present and future generations of farmers and ranchers, and 3) to promote economic development and expand market opportunities for Oregon agricultural products.

Cluster Contact

David Zepponi
President
Northwest Food Processors Association
8338 NE Alderwood Road, Suite 160
Portland, OR 97220
503-327-2208

Cluster Events

The expanded cluster meets annually (January 16-19, 2011) at the Northwest Food Manufacturing & Packaging Expo at the Oregon Convention Center. With 3,500 – 4,000 attendees and 400 – 450 equipment and services booths, this is the largest regional gathering of food processors and suppliers in North America.

Since 2007, the Northwest Industrial Energy Efficiency Summit (planned by NWFPA) is co-located at the NWFPA Expo January 19, 2011.

Other major meetings of NWFPA include an Annual Executive Business Summit in May and an Autumn Assembly of Committees in October.