California, New York, and Texas rank as the top 3 States in number of U.S. food and beverage processing plants

In 2017, there were 36,555 food and beverage processing plants located throughout the United States, employing more than 1.7 million people. Some of the largest States had the highest number of food and beverage processing plants: California had the most plants (5,731), followed by New York (2,573) and Texas (2,273). These were also the top three States in number of total manufacturing plants in 2017. California and Texas ranked among the top four States in agricultural production in 2017, as well. California holds an important national position in several food and beverage processing industries—including wineries (1,499 plants), fruit and vegetable processing (333 plants), and coffee and tea manufacturing (100 plants)—because of its favorable climate for growing a variety of crops and other factors, such as its large ports and other infrastructure. In addition, California ranks second only to Wisconsin in the number of dairy processing plants (140). In New York, bakery manufacturing plants were the most numerous of the State’s food and beverage processing plants (1,197) in 2017, followed by wineries (207 plants) and breweries (171 plants). The top four food and beverage processing industries in Texas in 2017 were bakery manufacturing (669 plants), animal slaughter and processing (270 plants), and wineries and breweries (152 and 135 plants, respectively). This chart appears in the Manufacturing section of the Processing & Marketing topic page on the Economic Research Service website.

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