Industry and Educational Advocates for New York State's Food, Beverage, and Animal Feed Manufacturing industries:

As you know, NYS has a diverse food and beverage manufacturing industry, in both the types of industries that exist and the wide distribution of firms by scale. Many manufacturing firms have strong backward linkages to agricultural production sectors in the state that support both farm-level and downstream food industry firms and consumers. In collaboration with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, a team from Cornell University's Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management has recently rolled out the 2025 New York State Food, Beverage, and Animal Feed Manufacturer Survey. The industry will benefit from an updated assessment of the industry that informs private and public investments and opportunities to support firm growth and improved profitability. 

In particular, we are conducting the survey to:

1. Identify opportunities for business retention and growth that improve firm competitiveness,
2. Enumerate solutions to feasibly expand NYS food products in institutional markets,
3. Assess the additive economic impacts of public funds that support capital investments in food, beverage, and animal feed manufacturing, and
4. Offer policy makers and business managers information that will enhance the future success of the industry.

The Qualtrics survey will take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete. To assist firms in completing the survey, publicly available Word and pdf versions of the survey is available HERE and will be useful in understanding what types of information we are asking for in advance. If firms prefer to complete the survey with the fillable pdf version instead, they are welcome to do so, simply return it to us in hard copy or email. If firms have multiple processing facilities in the state, they only need to complete one survey. Importantly, ownership of processing facilities is NOT required for participation. If you contract with a co-packer/co-manufacturer/shared-use-kitchen, please complete the survey. If you are a co-packer/co-manufacturer for other firms' products, please complete the survey. If you own your own processing facilities, please complete the survey. It is crucial that the survey response is representative of the distribution of firms in the state, in both what they make and the size of the firm.

All individual firm data and information will be kept confidential and reported only in aggregate form. All analysis and output from this survey will be posted online and available to the public. If firms provide their contact details in the survey, they will receive notice when the results are available. We will also present the results to industry and public policy officials.

Finally, we gratefully appreciate sharing the survey invitation with other NYS manufacturers and industry associations to support our efforts. If you're not a manufacturer but know of or work with them, please help spread the word!

If you have any questions about the research or the survey, please don't hesitate to reach out to Professor Todd Schmit at tms1@cornell.edu or 607-255-3015.

For us to move forward in a timely manner, completed surveys should be submitted by December 19, 2025. Thanks in advance for your valuable time and input; your participation and assistance are essential to the success of this effort. Thank you for helping us help you!

SURVEY LINK: https://dyson.cornell.edu/fbm-survey2025

—Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Cornell Cooperative Extension

Survey Cover Letter (PDF; 239KB)

Survey - Fillable Form (PDF; 1333KB)

Survey - Hardcopy (PDF; 462KB)