Food and Beverage Industry Statistics: 2026 Report

Food and Beverage Industry Statistics at a Glance

Food and beverage manufacturing is the largest U.S. manufacturing sector by employment. The table below captures current benchmarks across global market size, U.S. manufacturing employment, real output, and distribution channel composition. The Mordor Intelligence percentages in this table reflect that firm’s own market model, which estimates the global F&B market at $9.79 trillion in 2026; they are publisher-specific figures and are not subdivisions of the Precedence Research headline.

The Food and Beverage Industry: Key Statistics, 2025–2026

Key Findings

Precedence Research projects the global food and beverage market will grow from $8.71 trillion in 2025 to $14.72 trillion by 2034, a projected market-value increase of roughly $6 trillion over nine years [1]. This growth reflects rising consumer demand across food and beverage categories.

U.S. food and beverage manufacturing employed approximately 2.1 million workers in 2024, representing 16 percent of all U.S. manufacturing employment [3]. BLS data shows real manufacturing output reached $872.5 billion in chained 2017 dollars in 2024 and projects real output will grow to $1,062.4 billion in chained 2017 dollars by 2034, a 21.8 percent inflation-adjusted increase over the decade.

Beverage manufacturing carried the highest projected employment growth among all F&B subsectors at 11.4 percent through 2034, with the BLS projecting approximately 37,800 new jobs added over the period [3]. The BLS attributes this to expected increases in consumer demand for a wider variety of beverage products, driven in part by convenience-format consumption trends.

Food and Beverage Logistics Market Statistics

The primary market-size series below follows IMARC Group’s framework, which covers the full spectrum of food transportation, cold chain, and distribution services; additional benchmarks from Towards FnB and Owlery are labeled separately. A separate Mordor Intelligence report estimates the U.S. food logistics market at $230.45 billion for 2025 using a broader definition that incorporates food service and retail logistics infrastructure; that figure is not included in this table because it is not directly comparable to IMARC’s global total.

The Food and Beverage Logistics Market: Size and Growth, 2025–2034

Key Findings

IMARC Group projects the global food logistics market will grow from $130.0 billion in 2025 to $227.0 billion by 2034, at a 6.39 percent CAGR [5]. Towards FnB, cited by Anchor Group, reports a broader food supply chain market of $182.81 billion in 2025, projected to reach $359.39 billion by 2034 at a 7.8 percent CAGR [6]. These two series use different market definitions and should not be compared directly or treated as parts of a single dataset.

North America holds 43.2 percent of global food logistics revenues within IMARC’s framework [5]. IMARC associates this share with the scale of the U.S. food retail economy and growing food-safety, traceability, and temperature-monitoring requirements.

F&B companies with cold chain requirements tend to spend 8–15 percent of revenue on transportation, according to Owlery, with the range varying by product temperature sensitivity, shipping distance, and order profile complexity [7]. Temperature-controlled services carry 3PL gross margins of 20–35 percent, compared to 8–15 percent for ambient road transport, according to IMARC Group [5].

Cold Chain’s Role in Food and Beverage Logistics

Within IMARC Group’s food-logistics model, cold-chain services are the largest service type, accounting for 61.2 percent of market revenue. The table below summarizes key benchmarks on cold chain’s contribution to F&B logistics. Cold chain market sizing as a standalone topic falls outside the scope of this report.

Cold Chain Benchmarks in Food and Beverage Logistics

Key Findings

Within IMARC Group’s food-logistics dataset, cold-chain services represent 61.2 percent of food logistics market revenue in 2025, making it the largest service category [5]. Mordor Intelligence separately estimates that food and beverage accounts for 74.25 percent of the cold chain logistics market by revenue in 2025 [8]. These figures come from separate publisher datasets and are not subdivisions of each other.

Custom Market Insights projects the U.S. food cold chain market will grow at a 16.32 percent CAGR through 2034 [9]. Mordor Intelligence separately projects refrigerated transportation within the cold chain logistics market will grow at a 6.88 percent CAGR through 2031, which Mordor attributes to consumer demand growth in fresh, chilled, and frozen food categories [8].

Food and Beverage Supply Chain Disruptions and Waste

Supply chain performance in food and beverage is measured by loss rates and disruption frequency alongside cost and speed. The statistics below cover global food loss and waste, U.S. retail-level unsold food, and supply chain operational benchmarks. Population scope for each figure is identified in the table. The FAO and UNEP figures in rows one and two measure distinct stages and should not be combined.

The Food and Beverage Supply Chain: Disruption and Waste Statistics

Key Findings

The FAO estimates approximately 13.2 percent of food produced globally is lost between harvest and the retail level, based on 2021 data [10]. UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report 2024 separately estimates that approximately 19 percent of food available to consumers is wasted at the retail, food service, and household levels, based on 2022 data [11]. These figures measure distinct stages of the food supply chain and are not additive. ReFED reports a 2.90 percent unsold food rate at the U.S. retail sector specifically in 2024, representing 3.98 million tons and $26.9 billion in unrealized retail sales [12].

WTW’s 2023 Food, Beverage and Agriculture Supply Chain Risk Report surveyed 100 senior decision-makers at global food, beverage, and agriculture companies and found that 73 percent reported supply chain losses higher than expected during the preceding two years [13]. Separately, 63 percent of F&B organizations identified supply chain robustness as a key operational gap, reported in a 2024 article by The Logic Factory [15].

McKinsey Global Institute research from 2020 found that, across industries, supply chain disruptions lasting one month or longer occur on average every 3.7 years; this is a cross-industry benchmark and not an F&B-specific or current finding [14]. Average raw material delivery times across industries stood at approximately 81 days as of October 2024, about 25 percent longer than the pre-pandemic baseline of 65 days, according to Interos data cited by Procurement Tactics [16]. That delivery-time figure covers cross-industry sourcing and is not a finished-goods distribution benchmark.

U.S. Food and Beverage Manufacturing Employment by Subsector

The table below shows U.S. food and beverage manufacturing employment by subsector, based on 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics data [3]. Subsector employment size reflects the relative scale of production activity; it is not a direct measure of freight volume or logistics spend, which vary by product density, temperature requirements, transportation mode, and distribution channel.

The U.S. Food and Beverage Manufacturing Workforce: Employment and Growth, 2024–2034

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [3]. Percentages are rounded and may not sum to exactly 100.

Key Findings

Beverage manufacturing posted the highest projected employment growth of any F&B subsector at 11.4 percent through 2034, adding an estimated 37,800 jobs over the period, according to BLS projections [3]. The BLS projects this growth reflects continued expansion in consumer demand for a wider variety of beverage products.

Animal slaughtering and processing accounts for 26 percent of all U.S. F&B manufacturing employment and is projected to grow 6.4 percent through 2034 [3]. The USDA identifies meat processing as the largest F&B industry group by sales, value added, and employment [4]. Given the perishable nature of fresh meat and poultry, this subsector may be a consistent source of refrigerated transportation demand, although freight volume and logistics spend depend on individual shipper networks.

The BLS defines “other food manufacturing” as including snack foods, coffees and teas, and perishable prepared foods such as salads, sandwiches, and ready meals [3]. This subsector is projected to grow 8.4 percent through 2034 and spans products with varying distribution requirements: some ship under refrigeration, others at ambient temperature, and many may involve multi-stop delivery to retail or food service accounts.

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The global food and beverage market is projected to grow by roughly $6 trillion in market value through 2034. Within IMARC Group’s food-logistics model, cold-chain services represent 61.2 percent of food logistics market revenue. A 2023 WTW survey of food, beverage, and agriculture companies found that 73 percent of respondents reported higher-than-expected supply chain losses over the preceding two years, and 63 percent of F&B organizations identified supply chain robustness as a top operational gap in a 2024 article.

For supply chain and operations leaders at mid-market food and beverage companies, these benchmarks raise two practical questions: how does your logistics spend compare to sector norms, and how well is your network designed to handle the next disruption?

We work with mid-market food and beverage companies to address both. Our team provides advisory-led logistics strategy and executes across refrigerated transportation, domestic truckload and LTL, and final mile delivery. Warehousing in the Twin Cities and Houston is available as part of an integrated logistics solution when your network design calls for it.

Need help turning freight and landed-cost data into a better operating model? Request a consultation with our team to review your freight data and total landed cost.

Request a Consultation with MVP Logistics

Sources

1. “Food and Beverages Market Size.” Precedence Research, 2025. https://www.precedenceresearch.com/press-release/food-and-beverages-market-size
2. “Food and Beverage Market Size and Share Analysis, 2026–2031.” Mordor Intelligence, September 2026. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/food-and-beverage-market
3. “Feeding the Economy: Employment Growth in Food and Beverage Manufacturing Expected to Continue Through the 2024–34 Decade.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2026/article/feeding-the-economy-employment-growth-in-food-and-beverage-manufacturing-expected-to-continue-through-the-2024-34-decade.htm
4. “Processing and Marketing: Food and Beverage Manufacturing.” USDA Economic Research Service, 2025. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-markets-prices/processing-marketing/food-and-beverage-manufacturing
5. “Food Logistics Market Size, Share, Trends and Forecast by Transportation Mode, Product Type, Service Type, Segment, and Region, 2026–2034.” IMARC Group, 2026. https://www.imarcgroup.com/food-logistics-market
6. “21 Food and Beverage Supply Chain Statistics Every Operations Leader Should Know in 2025.” Anchor Group (citing Towards FnB), updated September 2026. https://www.anchorgroup.tech/blog/food-beverage-supply-chain-statistics
7. “Transportation Spend as % of Revenue.” Owlery, February 2026. https://owlery.ai/glossary/transportation-spend-as-of-revenue
8. “Cold Chain Logistics Market Size and Share Analysis, 2026–2031.” Mordor Intelligence, 2026. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/cold-chain-logistics-market
9. “US Food Cold Chain Market Size, Trends, Share 2025–2034.” Custom Market Insights, July 2025. https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/us-food-cold-chain-market/
10. “Food Loss and Food Waste.” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Citing SDG Indicator 12.3.1 monitoring; data year 2021. https://www.fao.org/policy-support/policy-themes/food-loss-and-food-waste/en
11. “Food Waste Index Report 2024.” United Nations Environment Programme, 2024; data year 2022. https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/food-waste-index-report-2024
12. “2025 Data Report.” ReFED, U.S. Food Waste Pact. Published February 25, 2026; summarizing 2024 retail-sector data. https://foodwastepact.refed.org/resources/2025-data-report/
13. “Food, Beverage and Agriculture Supply Chain Risk Report 2023.” WTW (Willis Towers Watson). Survey of 100 senior decision-makers at global food, beverage, and agriculture companies. March 2023. https://www.wtwco.com/en-ie/insights/2023/03/2023-food-beverage-and-agriculture-supply-chain-risk-report
14. “Risk, Resilience, and Rebalancing in Global Value Chains.” McKinsey Global Institute, August 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/risk-resilience-and-rebalancing-in-global-value-chains. Secondary encounter via Trinity Logistics: https://trinitylogistics.com/blog/trends-in-the-food-and-beverage-industry
15. “Supply Chain Challenges in Food Production 2024.” The Logic Factory, 2024. https://thelogicfactory.com/resources/supply-chain-challenges-in-food-production-2024/
16. “Supply Chain Statistics: 70 Key Figures of 2026.” Procurement Tactics (citing Interos), 2026. Cross-industry sourcing data; raw material delivery time as of October 2024. https://procurementtactics.com/supply-chain-statistics/