Illinois Food Sector.
Illinois is also the location of some of the largest Food Trade fairs in the US such as the annual ‘‘Food Marketing Institute’’ and ‘‘National Restaurant Association’’ shows held at McCormick Place in Chicago. Linked with the food processing industry is a thriving Food Processing Equipment industry. In fact Illinois is the top state in the US for sales of Food Processing Equipment. Employment ........................................................................... 120,000 Number of Food Manufacturing companies ................................... 1,300 Value of Food Processing industry .............................................. $14 billion Value of Processing Equipment Industry ...................................... $2.7 billion Fortune 1000’ firms in this industry headquartered in Illinois include Sara Lee (a diversified concern, which markets many branded consumer products, including Douwe Egberts), Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) , Quaker Oats, Dean Foods, McDonalds and Keebler Foods. Large Food Processing Equipment firms include Dover Industries, Carrier Commercial Refrigeration, APV Consolidated, The Middleby Corp. and APV North America.
Thanks to its vast fertile farmland, both the agriculture and food processing industries are strong and well developed in Illinois. Agriculture generates more than $8 billion annually mainly in the production of corn, soybean and pigs, while the food processing industry is the No. 1 manufacturing activity in the State, with a value of $14 billion per anum.