Cheese production leads region's agribusiness

The results of an agribusiness economic impact study, presented Nov. 16 at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, revealed that cheese manufacturing accounted for $1.75 billion of the $4.23 billion agriculture processing industry in a 12-county region that includes and surrounds Greene County. As a whole, regional agribusiness has an economic impact of $5.2 billion annually, the study said.

“I was a little surprised,” said Willow Brook Foods President Mike Briggs, who was among the panelists who spoke about the study’s results. “I thought it would be poultry.”

Willow Brook Foods slaughters and processes turkeys to the tune of $170 million a year in Springfield, representing about 20 percent of the region’s poultry sales, Briggs said. The company contracts with 100 area farmers for its turkey supply.

According to the study, which converted 2002 data into 2004 dollars, poultry processing has an economic impact of $1.1 billion.

Other panelists were Brian Hammons of Hammons Products Co., Don Lucietta of the Office of Congressman Roy Blunt and Anson Elliott of Missouri State University’s agriculture department.

Elliott said he and others in agriculture anxiously awaited this type of a study, and they hope it inspires more agribusiness data collection.

“One good study leads to another,” he said.

MSU associate professor Arbindra Rimal prepared the study for the chamber’s agribusiness roundtable.