It’s been a rough-and-tumble five years since Food Engineering reported 613 food and beverage plant construction projects for calendar year 2007. From there, the number of reportable projects went downhill with the state of the economy. But it seems 2012 is the year processors freed up some money to upgrade their plants or build new facilities to keep up with an increased demand for product.
Reportable projects hit 600 in 2012, 32.5 percent higher than 2011’s total of 453 projects and just 2.1 percent lower than the 2007 high of 613 projects, according to Food Engineering’s 36th Annual Plant Construction Survey. Reportable projects are those that have been made public by the processor itself, a government entity (including local or state economic development groups) or the architectural and engineering/construction (A&E/C) firm responsible for the project.