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.
Nearly 300 foreign-owned companies have found a home in Arkansas, from a wide cross-section of industries. As of November this year, the total is 293 (see Figure 1). These companies are subsidiaries of foreign enterprises, also referred to as parent or primary companies. These foreign-owned companies range from retail, manufacturing, and technology, to service providing, just to name a few. Some of the largest companies include Dassault Falcon Jet Corporation and L’Oreal from France, ASEA Brown Boveri (or ABB) from Switzerland, O.K. Foods Inc. from Mexico, and Nucor-Yamato Steel Company from Japan. Please read the full list and map (Figure 2) for more details of the companies.
Figure 1: Counts of foreign-owned companies in Arkansas
Figure 2: Map of foreign investment in Arkansas (downloadable PDF version)
Figure 3: Top 10 foreign-owned company parent countries by employment in Arkansas
We also highlighted investments made by companies from four countries: Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and France, with individual maps (see Figure 4). The reasons for selecting these countries are: 1) These countries have made the most investments in Arkansas, with the highest amount of parent companies that are involved; 2) AEDC’s historical international marketing-focused area covers these countries; and 3) AEDC currently has foreign offices in Japan, Germany and China, and the highlighted countries are in proximity to these local offices.
Figure 4: Investment from Japan, Germany, France and United Kingdom
Between 2010 and 2015, Arkansas’ foreign direct investment (FDI) employment increased 34 percent, compared to the state’s overall private-sector employment increase rate of only 5.2 percent. As of January 2018, according to this report, FDI contributes to about 3.4 percent of the state’s total private industry employment.
“I am pleased that Arkansas is a national leader in FDI growth,” said Governor Asa Hutchinson. Arkansas continues to draw global attention as an attractive destination for business. Please get in touch with AEDC’s international business development team to learn more how about the pro-business climate in the Natural State can benefit your business.
