For the third time since May, Augusta is showing up in a survey of locations to do business. Georgia overall is ranked well on another “Best Of” report, and Augusta is in the top 20 in the results.
Global Location Strategies (GLS) has published the 2025 edition of its Best Places for Food Manufacturing report. Augusta checks in nationwide at number 12.
In May, a report by GLS on the Best Places for Primary Metal Manufacturing Insights report, Augusta was ranked at number 21. That reflected a jump from 42 in the 2024 report.
A report published just this month by Site Selection Magazine in a survey of economic development along Interstate 20, Augusta was ranked number ten.
Augusta is the second-largest city, ranking well in the food manufacturing report. Topping the list of 387 metropolitan regions for U.S. food manufacturing in Warner Robins.
“It jumped up 11 spots from 2024, and that was primarily due to some really strong demographic trends, labor force growth, and also rising industry cost competitiveness,” Didi Caldwell, President and CEO of GLS, told ABD. “So, it was not one thing in particular, but it was a multitude of things that followed along. Those three lines, that metro area in particular, has recorded an 8.7% year-over-year job growth in food manufacturing.”
Caldwell added that the overall report shows there was some pent-up demand after a drop off in 2020 during the pandemic.
“We rebounded pretty strongly in 2021, but since then, food manufacturing projects have dropped off, but we saw a pretty good rebound in 2024 so we had 154 new projects across the country, and that total $15.3 billion in capital investment and generated, or at least announced that it will generate 23,000 jobs,” she detailed.
The report studied a combination of location quality and operating costs. It covers myriad subjects ranging from specialty food manufacturing, grain and oilseed milling, sugar and confectionery product manufacturing and bakeries, and tortilla manufacturing.
Also studied was the category of animal slaughtering and manufacturing. Augusta is the headquarters for FPL Food, LLC. With four facilities in Georgia, the company is one of the largest, privately owned processors of fresh beef products.
Augusta also provides material for another category: animal food manufacturing. The Union Agener Animal Health facility in East Augusta is a biotechnology unit producing Posilac, used to increase milk production in cows.
Overall, animal food manufacturing is experiencing long-term growth of 17% driven, in part, by consumer demands for premium pet food.
“I think it’s a confluence of a lot of factors,” explained Caldwell. “People really do love their pets, and while people want to eat healthier themselves. They also want to keep their pets as healthy as possible, and right now they have the disposable income to be able to afford a higher quality pet food for their four-legged friends.”
The report also examines some of the challenges the food manufacturing industry is facing, in particular, the loss of workforce due to the deportation of undocumented immigrants. That could be further impacted by visa restrictions.
“Politics aside, the only way that you can get more people back into the into main food manufacturing is by paying them more, which will either be absorbed by the food manufacturers to the extent that they can, but eventually those costs are going to be passed on to customers, and so that could lead to higher prices at the grocery store,” she said. “You can also automate, but there are some types of processes that are just very difficult to automate.”
Still to be determined is the overall impact the Trump Administration tariffs will have on food.
Caldwell said the U.S. share of imports and total food consumption grew to 17.3% in 2022.
“This sector has become increasingly more exposed to the impact of tariffs, and a lot of that comes from our closest trading partners, which are Canada and Mexico.”
She said Mexico supplies more than half of all the fresh vegetable imports into the United States, including avocados and tomatoes.
“And so that leads to higher prices at the grocery store, but it also leads to higher prices for US manufacturers of salsa, for example, or ketchup, or, you know, anything that requires imported fruits and vegetables from Mexico.”
She said a smaller segment, but interesting to watch, is the growing packaged foods market, like Hello Fresh and Factor. She said the overall impact is small currently, but it is growing.
The full report is available at www.globallocationstrategies.com/reports.
