Record number of companies in the food industry

The food industry had a record number of 7,650 companies at the beginning of the third quarter of this year. Never before have so many companies been active in this sector. Compared with the same time in the previous year, 525 companies were added, representing an increase of 7.4 percent, according to an analysis of recent CBS figures by our editors.

Fish processing industry experiences relatively highest growth

Between the beginning of the third quarter of 2022 and the same quarter this year, the fish processing industry experienced a growth of 15.6 percent, increasing from 160 to 185 companies. This is the largest percentage increase of any sector within the food industry during this period. Other sectors with high growth were the fruit and vegetable processing industry (+14.3 percent) and the animal feed industry (+14.0 percent). Sectors with below-average growth in the third quarter were flour industry (+4.5 percent), bread and pasta industry (+5.5 percent) and dairy industry (+6.9 percent).

Bread and pasta industry has the most companies

At the beginning of the third quarter of this year, companies in the bread and pasta industry made up more than half of all companies in the food industry (4095 companies = 53.5 percent). Just over 10 percent (770 companies) were in the slaughtering and meat products industry and 5.0 percent (385 companies) in the dairy industry. The edible oils and fats, flour and fish processing industries had 60, 115 and 185 companies, respectively, making them among the smallest sectors within the food industry.

More than half of firms have only one employee

The majority of firms in the food industry are small businesses. At the beginning of the third quarter of this year, 57.6 percent of firms had only one employee, 9.9 percent had two employees, 7.2 percent had three to five employees, and 8.9 percent had five to 10 employees. Medium-sized firms (10 to 100 employees) made up 13.5 percent of the total, while only 2.9 percent of firms were in the larger category with 100 or more employees.