Delaware provides one of the most fertile environments in the nation for food and agriculture businesses to thrive.
Agriculture & Food Production
Delaware is one of the country’s leading producers of broiler chickens, generating more than $1 billion in sales annually. Leading poultry processors such as Perdue, Allen Harim, and Mountaire have significant operations in the state, and the poultry industry represents approximately 70% of Delaware’s cash farm income.
With highly productive soil and generations of skilled farmers, Delaware is a significant producer of soybeans, field corn, watermelon, lima beans, sweet corn, and potatoes. Agriculture and farming have been a way of life in Delaware ever since the first settlers arrived more than three centuries ago. Farmers form the backbone of Delaware’s economy. Corn is the top crop, watermelons are the leading fruit crop and broilers are the most valuable agricultural product. Other important Delaware agricultural products include wheat, barley, apples, peaches, grapes, peas, and dairy.
Agriscience & Precision Agriculture
Delaware is on the cutting-edge of some of the most modern advances in food and agriculture. Delaware’s agriculture, advanced chemicals, and life sciences sectors work closely together.
Delaware-based life sciences companies utilize biologists, animal scientists, and chemists to produce pharmaceutical products for agribusiness. And, multinational companies support Delaware agriculture by advancing R&D in areas like crop breeding, digital ag and more, while farms adopt sophisticated precision agriculture technology. At the University of Delaware, internationally renowned scientists work alongside students to tackle the big issues facing agribusiness, in the classroom and on the school’s 350-acre farm lab that provides hands-on experience with animals, crop plants, wetlands, forests, greenhouses, and a working dairy.
“With a location that puts us within a day’s drive of one-third of the U.S. population and our highly productive soils, Delaware is positioned to be a foodshed for the eastern United States.” – Ed Kee, Former Secretary of Agriculture
