Big Food Processing Aspirations In A Small California City
By Isaac Fletcher, contributing writer, Food Online
The steadily growing central-California city of Turlock hopes to continue to attract the business of food processors, strengthening its economic position, and transforming into an active hub for the food-processing industry
The Draft 2014 Economic Development Strategic Plan recently released by the city of Turlock, CA highlighted plans to develop new strategies to keep the city’s economy strong for years to come. The Economic Development Taskforce has identified the best parts of Turlock’s previous plan from 2003 and will adapt those elements to better suit where the city is economically today. Agriculture and related industries have continually played an important role in Turlock’s economy, and the task force encourages the city to take advantage of this by seeking new food processing industry members to bring into the city.
The Turlock Regional Industrial Park was created with the intent of attracting new businesses and has been identified as one of Turlock’s strongest assets in being a competitor within the central California region. The business park has so far brought companies such as Blue Diamond and Hilmar Cheese into the city and the task force hopes that more will follow. Existing food processors in the region already include several large employers, like Foster Farms, Sensient Flavors, Supherb Farms, and Mid-Valley Dairy. The presence of these food companies is something that members of the task force, along with Mayor John Lazar, hope to continually leverage to further build Turlock into an active food processing hub.
Lazar states, “It is essential that Turlock is recognized for its assets and is known as a welcoming and effective city in which to conduct business. Our Turlock Industrial Regional Park is a unique asset with which we can uniquely market ourselves as the Silicon Valley of food processing.” With this goal in mind, the taskforce has identified other factors that will help attract food industry business to the region. Among these are having California State University, Stanislaus in town to provide potential employers with an educated workforce, competitively priced electricity to help mitigate rising energy costs, and the Turlock Irrigation district, which offers power at significantly lower rates than other providers.
Although the economic plan also identified some weaknesses, such as an unskilled workforce and distance from Interstate 5 — the main interstate on the west coast of the U.S. — the taskforce, city staff, and elected officials are optimistic about Turlock’s food processing industry prospects. They are also aiming to continue to create partnerships and foster economic development in the region by offering food processors a viable place to conduct business.