The industry looks bright. But those who deal with it face issues about who regulates what, and they are starting to see competition from overseas.
According to FoodProcessing.com, budgets in 2010 for capital expenditures in the food and beverage processing industry were up more than 19% over what they were in 2009, when actual spending declined by about 8.7%. And research by Industrial Info Resources, released in late November, revealed an even more dramatic improvement when comparing U.S. and Canadian projects tracked in 2010. The number of projects increased 42.5% from 2009 (359 projects) to 2010 (510); investments increased a very healthy 53.8% from 2009 ($3.58 billion) to 2010 ($5.51 billion). The industry is clearly in the throes of recovery and does not appear to have suffered as much as some other manufacturing industries from the economic collapse.