Food & Beverages
Oregon has a long history in Food and Beverages. It's one of the greatest places to grow a diverse range of agriculture products, and has hundreds of companies doing value-added processing of those products. It's also become an iconic location for craft beer and wine. The Food and Beverages industry as we've defined here does not include Oregon's incredible agriculture products, but only manufactured food and beverage products.
Food and Beverages is Oregon's fastest growing target industry group in manufacturing, with over 32% employment growth between 2008 and 2018. It has made significant gains in competitiveness as well, as Food and Beverages employment nationally grew by 14% over the same period. Export growth has also been strong, growing 75% over the past ten years. Food and Beverages is an important growth industry for rural Oregon as well. Oregon has more than 1,600 businesses in Food and Beverages, including the following brands:
- Tillamook
- Amy's Kitchen
- Bob's Red Mill
- ConAgra Foods
1,603
Establishments
41,260
Employment
$766,532,774
Exports
$43,146
Average Wage
Food
Oregon's food industry specializes in frozen and packaged fruit and vegetable products, dairy products, snack foods, and much more. From millions of pounds of tater tots to fine cheese, there are thousands of delicious, quality products being sold throughout the world coming out of Oregon. Food manufacturing employment in Oregon grew three times faster than the industry average nationally between 2008 and 2018. The food industry is twice as concentrated in rural Oregon as it is for the whole state, making it very important to many rural communities.
Beverages
Oregon beverages have become a core piece of the state's image and economy. There are more than 700 wineries in Oregon, many specializing in Oregon's signature varietal—pinot noir, for which the state is one of finest producers of in the world. In addition to wine, Oregon is also famous for some of the best craft beer in the world, with more than 200 brewers throughout the state. Oregon breweries helped create the modern craft beer movement, and have garnered many national and international beer awards, while nearly doubling employment over the past ten years.
Oregon Food and Beverage Industry Roadmap
Business Oregon and other state partners brought together an Oregon Food and Beverage Leadership Steering Committee to produce a Food and Beverage Industry Road Map. The Road Map is intended to support a shared vision among industry leaders, policymakers and economic development professionals across Oregon regarding the opportunity to accelerate growth of the food and beverage industry through collaborative public-private partnerships.
From this work, we now have a complete industry analysis and road map 
, along with the committee's executive summary and prioritized recommendations.
Industry Snapshot
2018 Annual Data
| Food & Beverages | Food | Beverages | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Establishments | 1,059 | 544 | 1,603 |
| Employment | 34,314 | 6,946 | 41,260 |
| Location Quotient (Oregon/U.S.) | 1.40 | 1.89 | 1.46 |
| Rural Location Quotient (Rural Oregon/Oregon) | 2.04 | 1.19 | 1.89 |
| Average Wage | $ 43,557 | $ 41,120 | $ 43,146 |
| Exports | $ 710,071,794 | $ 56,460,980 | $ 766,532,774 |
Source: Oregon Business Development Department with data from 1) Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages, 2) U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division, 3) Oregon Employment Department, Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages, and 4) D&B Hoovers.
