2nd Stage Food Business Economic Analysis and Feasibility Study

Understanding the Needs of RI's 2nd-Stage Food Businesses to Support Growth

Thanks to federal funding from the EDA Local Technical Assistance Grant, RI Commerce will be conducting a needs assessment and feasibility study for the state of Rhode Island in order to understand the needs of growing second-stage food & beverage businesses. Outcomes will help determine public investment and economic development strategies to support growth in this important sector. 

Food business incubators and technical assistance providers in Rhode Island have achieved great success in helping to launch food & beverage businesses, almost half of which are women and minority owned. There are several success stories of home-grown food & beverage start-ups which have scaled to regional and national markets. However, many Rhode Island food businesses express that there are insufficient supports for "second stage" manufacturing and operations which is driving companies out of the state to find co-packing facilities, a common next-stage of growth for food producers looking to reach regional and national markets. 

Many neighboring states are grappling with similar infrastructure issues: the need for commercial scale co-packing and/or shared manufacturing kitchens, additional slaughterhouse capacity, bottling plants, etc. Over the last several years the State has invested significant resources into early-stage food manufacturing for small and innovative food & beverage startups which create good food jobs and offer an economic multiplier benefit by often purchasing from local farmers, fishers and food producers. Supporting the development of food clusters and next-level spaces is critical to cultivating and retaining food businesses in Rhode Island. Given Rhode Island's strategic location and emerging food innovation ecosystem, our food entrepreneurs and custom manufacturers are well positioned to capture the market opportunity of 60 million consumers within a days’ drive. 

Deliverables and Outcomes:

• outline the targeted food cluster economic trends, jobs, size and growth opportunities (e.g. size of the market, potential job creation, etc) 
• needs assessment of the cluster which includes measurable and specific needs such as capital needs, infrastructure, etc.,
• landscape assessment of state-level economic development tools and policies in Rhode Island and similar or nearby state. The assessment will identify tools that are working and gap.

PROJECT TIMELINE

Advisory Council

The Advisory Council serves as primary advisors to the Director of Food Strategy throughout project. The Advisory Council will help RI Commerce and the selected Consultant team, Place Dynamics, to identify key stakeholders and businesses to inform the research and development of the report.

• Jesse Rye, Executive Director, Farm Fresh RI
• Lisa Raiola, President & Founder, Hope & Main
• Josh Daly, Associate Director RI Food Policy Council
• Rachel LaPorte, Food & Beverage Director, Town Made
• Maggie Longo, Restaurant & Hospitality Consultant, RISBDC
• Kayleigh Hill, SupplyRI Program Manager, RI Commerce
• Nathan Bonds, Project Manager, PolarisMEP

Consultant Team

Place Dynamics was selected via a competitive bid to provide consulting services to RI Commerce throughout this process.Place Dynamics has been providing economic research across the United States and Canada for 19 years. Their work has often involved food and closely related industries, including projects to assess the needs of specific food/beverage industries, food entrepreneurship, food incubation and shared-use kitchen feasibility, copacking feasibility, value-added farm production, large-scale processing, and market and conceptual design for ag-industrial parks targeting food processors.

EDA Award No. ED23PHI0G0082