Food & Beverage Cluster Report: Key Findings and Recommendations
Lane County’s key industrial clusters are Food and Beverage (manufacturing and agricultural production), Advanced Materials (construction materials, materials science), and EduTech (software publishing, social and behavioral research). Clustering of closely related business is known to promote and catalyze innovation as different disciplines, thinking, and professional networks collide.
Food and Beverage
- Food and Beverage Manufacturing is one of the only sectors to grow in Lane County throughout the Great Recession in both total jobs and wages
- There are an extraordinary concentration of establishments in Food and Beverage in Lane County (more than 160) which is reflective of the start-up foment for specialty foods in our region
- The range of food industry service businesses, including an above-average concentration in local, specialty food retailers , significant cold storage facilities and distributors, encourages start-ups
- Seventy-five percent of businesses surveyed believed a coordinated food brand as either "very" or "somewhat" important