Arkansas has an abundance of resources to help food processing companies succeed. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission works directly with food processing companies looking to start-up, expand or relocate. In addition, we assist companies with finding the best incentives so companies are able to make money quickly and efficiently.
There were 522 food and beverage companies in Arkansas at the end of 2022. These companies employed 55,130 people. Arkansas is home to Tyson Foods and numerous other food processing facilities, including Nestle, JBS USA, Kraft Heinz, Mars Inc., Cargill Inc., Hormel Foods Corp, Riceland Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, ConAgra Brands Inc., Land O’ Frost and Frito-Lay, Inc.
Arkansas has the 5th largest percentage of food processing workers in the United States. The growth rate of the food and beverage industry from 2017 to 2022 was 6 percent in Arkansas.
The food processing industry is booming in Arkansas and continues to grow exponentially. Eight of the top 10 food and beverage companies by revenue in the world have manufacturing facilities in the state.
Arkansas is meeting the workforce needs for food processing companies. The state now has the second-largest number of food processing workers in the US and Arkansas has responded to industry growth by modernizing the workforce.
An Arkansas company is blazing the trail in the timber and forest products industry as a producer of sustainably sourced biomass. In April of this year, Highland Pellets delivered its first shipment of sustainable wood pellets to Drax Biomass in the United Kingdom to be used as a coal substitute to power fuel stations. The company’s new wood pellet facility in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, will produce more than 660,000 tons of pellets per year when it reaches full capacity.
The $229 million plant is changing the Arkansas forest industry and making a significant impact on the economy by not only producing sustainable fuel, but by producing sustainable outcomes for its employees, the community and the environment. The facility is providing 68 full-time jobs to the surrounding communities, and more than 450 direct jobs in the transport and forest-industries supply chain. The direct economic benefit of the Pine Bluff facility is estimated at $77 million annually.
Highland has positioned itself to become an immediate high-level provider of sustainable wood pellets for the European market. Wood pellets are a sustainably sourced feedstock for use by European industrial utilities to lower carbon footprint and provide sustainable base load power. Union Pacific will transport pellets produced at the facility on mainline rail to the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for export to Europe.
The Highland plant will use up to 1.4 million tons per year of wood feedstock, or fiber, taken from sustainably managed private working forests in the local area. Even after Highland’s processing of local wood, the pine wood in the region is forecast to increase from 113 million tons in 2014 to 156.8 million tons in 2032, according to Entergy Corporation.
