Page 48 - Innovation Delaware 2018

AGRICULTURE
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JOE MORAN
Back in 2011, Allen Family Foods went through bankruptcy and was purchased by the Harim Group, based in South Korea. In 2014, the firm rebranded as Allen Harim Foods. In 2016, JOE MORAN became CEO. And this year, the nearly 100-year-old poultry producer is making more moves.
“We’re in a growth mode right now,” Moran says. “We’re going to build a
new $22 million hatchery
in Dagsboro.” That state- of-the-art facility opens
in November. In 2016,
the company closed an aging processing facility in Maryland, consolidating operations at its Harbeson plant, which was more modern and had room for growth.
And there’s yet more good news for Delaware: Allen Harim plans to move its corporate headquarters
to an old Vlasic pickle plant in Millsboro it purchased in 2014. Along with the offices, the massive, 460,000-square- foot facility will house a processing operation, which
COMPANY TO WATCH
Allen Harim
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Q&A
JAMES WADDINGTON
Kent Economic Partnership
The Kent Economic Partnership supports the attraction and retention of jobs in Kent County. To find out what’s new in Delaware’s agriculture economy, we spoke to its director, James Waddington.
Q: What are the Economic Partnership’s goals with respect to agriculture?
JAMES WADDINGTON: The agricultural segment is one of the significant economic drivers in the county. To the extent that we can leverage the investment that has been made
in preserving farmland in Kent County into value-added agriculture and food-related businesses, we’re interested in using that as an economic development stimulus.
Q: What is the state of farming today in Kent County?
JW: We have 167,000 acres of farmland and over 60,000
acres of that has been permanently preserved at a cost
of $100 million — of what I would call real money, money that came from the State of Delaware, money that came from Kent County government — and so over a third of our farmland is permanently preserved.
Our current crop totals show that less than 10 percent of our farmland is producing fruits and vegetables. The balance is producing high-volume, low-margin commodity crops like wheat, corn and soybeans. Much of that production is being driven by the chicken industry, and Kent County certainly is reliant upon a healthy chicken industry in order to continue that agricultural model. But to the extent that we can broaden our base, we’re interested in doing it.
Q: What are some economic strengths in Kent County?
JW: We’ve come through this recession with a very
strong manufacturing base in Kent County. We have 75 manufacturers, and they employ approximately 4,800 people, and those are jobs that average $51,000 a year with benefits, so they’re good-paying jobs. We have a strong food manufacturing segment as well. We have
some major manufacturers in food production, companies like Kraft and Perdue. To the extent that we can focus on trying to attract other food manufacturing facilities, food production facilities, [they] would fit in well and would add additional manufacturing jobs.
46 DelawareBusinessTimes.com