In 2021, several departments of Maine’s government, including the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF), the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and the Department of Marine Resources (DMR), conducted a survey of Maine businesses and stakeholders asking about infrastructure investment opportunities in forestry, fisheries and agriculture. The results indicated broad support for investments in food and agricultural processing infrastructure in Maine, with a priority in the four key processing sectors: dairy processing, meat processing, grain storage and drying, and fruit and vegetable co-packing and custom processing. These priorities represent opportunities for job growth and expansion of statewide food and agricultural processing infrastructure.
The DACF partnered with the EDA center to conduct an assessment of the potential economic impact of investments in these areas. Our staff created four investment scenarios representing specific allocations of state money into each of the key processing sectors and estimated the following impacts:
- Maine’s agricultural producers raise more food than is processed in the state. In theory, Maine producers could support approximately
- 690 additional workers in dairy processing
- 172 slaughterhouse and animal processing workers
- 250 fruit, vegetable and berry processing workers
- 17 additional grain and oilseed milling workers
- A 50% investment to expand each of the food processing sectors state-wide would result in the following total economic effects:
| Sector | Sales ($Million) | Employment (Jobs) | Labor Income ($Million) |
| Grain And Oilseed Milling | $27.02 | 71 | $3.56 |
| Fruit and Vegetable Preserving And specialty food Manufacturing | $51.74 | 204 | $9.92 |
| Dairy Product Manufacturing | $226.63 | 1,017 | $45.96 |
| Animal Slaughtering and Processing | $15.34 | 74 | $2.86 |
EDA Sponsored Research Products
Bailey, Megan, Kathleen P. Bell, Andrew Crawley, Todd Gabe, Jonathan Malacarne, and Jonathan Rubin, “Economic Impacts of Investments in Food and Agricultural Processing Infrastructure in Maine.” EDA UMaine Staff Paper 2021-103: Technical Report. November 2021.