Trend

The Agriculture, Food, and Beverage Processing industry cluster includes establishments primarily engaged in growing crops, raising animals, and manufacturing food and beverages, as well as support activities for crop and animal production. For Food Processor’s, Central California is the obvious choice with 7 of the nation’s top ten agricultural producing counties. There is a very high degree of cross-over between value-added agriculture and advanced manufacturing. Clean-label ingredients are driving the market from growing to packaging, all done locally. 1 in every 5 jobs in the Central Valley is related to agriculture: 337,000 in Ag Production and 222,500 in Ag Processing. Examples of in demand entry-level and middle skills jobs include agriculture and food processing technicians, maintenance mechanics, quality control inspectors, farm machinery mechanics and bi-lingual supervisors. There is a very high degree of cross-over between value-added agriculture and advanced manufacturing.

• Regional job concentration for Food Processing is 3.94 times the
  national job concentration. In other words, there are 294% more
  jobs in Food Processing in this region than we would expect to find
  in the average region.
• Cost of food processing labor in the region is $70,000, which is
  below the state average.
• On average each year, community colleges in the region confer 125
  certificates and 233 degrees related to agriculture, water and food
  processing