Cumberland County emerges as hub for European food manufacturers

At the Bridgeton Food Manufacturing Hub, a 32,000-square-foot incubator opened in 2021 after a $9.2 million project has become part of a bigger effort to keep Cumberland County in the food business. The county says more than 30 million cubic feet of cold storage, direct access to major ports and a full transportation network are helping draw manufacturers that want a U.S. foothold.

Capital Analytics Associates said Cumberland County is emerging as a hub for European food manufacturers, with Italian, French and Swiss firms driving more than $1 billion in industrial impact and job creation across Southern New Jersey. The clearest signs are in Vineland, Millville and Upper Deerfield Township, where new plants have turned the county into a production base for branded meats and beverages.

Rovagnati opened its Vineland plant in 2021. Local reporting said the facility is about 45,000 square feet, employs about 20 full-time workers and supplies more than 2,000 retail stores. Levoni opened its first U.S. production facility in Millville on June 21, 2024, adding another European producer to the county’s industrial lineup. Maestri D’Italia completed its Vineland project in March 2025; project architects listed the plant at 68,190 square feet and identified it as a meat-slicing and packaging operation.

The next wave is even larger. Lassonde Industries announced about $200 million for a new 200,000-square-foot beverage manufacturing facility in New Jersey adjacent to its current site in Upper Deerfield Township. The company said the expansion was meant to replace its current plant, showing that Cumberland County’s appeal now reaches beyond one product line or one country of origin.

The county’s pitch rests on more than private investment. The Cumberland County Improvement Authority says its Food Specialization Center in Bridgeton is a 32,000-square-foot facility with two tenant food production spaces and support services for entrepreneurs. The Authority says it has invested more than $650 million in construction and public improvement projects since 2014, part of a long-term effort to keep industrial properties active and strengthen the tax base.

For households, the clearest measure is work. Cumberland County’s civilian labor force stood at 66,610 in December 2025, and the county’s major-employer list includes F&S Fresh Foods with 1,030 employees. The pattern reaches back to Seabrook Farms, once one of America’s largest producers of canned, frozen and dehydrated vegetables and a major military supplier during World War II. Cumberland County’s food economy now looks like an old industrial story retooled for a global market.