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Pineland Farms Sales Growing Amid Interest in Farm-to-Table Around the Country

A worker in the New Gloucester creamery
Jennifer Mitchell/MPBN

NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine — Maine's food industry is in the midst of a transition. The saga of slow decline for family farms has shifted to a story about the potential for new market opportunities — particularly for those that are branded as high quality products from Maine.

This shift is good news for producers such as New Gloucester-based Pineland Farms, which is making a serious play for consumers nationwide.

As of a few years ago, Maine ranked second in the nation for employment in its seafood products sector, but dropped to the middle of the pack for food processing and agriculture. And it ranked 49th for livestock processing. But as Pineland Farms CEO Bill Haggett will tell you, Pineland is now the biggest producer of natural beef in New England.

"One of the things that we offer in our beef is the fact that our cattle have never eaten any antibiotics, they've never been fed any, they've never been treated with antibiotics."> And how a food is produced, says Haggett, has become a prime factor in whether or not it winds up in a shopping cart. It's not just about lowest price anymore. That's of course good news for any number of micro producers that supply a very localized market, but Haggett says it's clearly working for Pineland too, which purchases 30,000 head of beef cattle from farmers around the New England region. And in addition to beef, Pineland now operates two other for-profit product lines: potatoes and cheese.

Pineland CEO Bill Haggett
Credit Jennifer Mitchell/MPBN
Pineland CEO Bill Haggett at the farm in New Gloucester.

"We'll generate sales this year in excess of a hundred million dollars, so, you know, they're substantial businesses by Maine standards," says Haggett.

That's about a 20% jump over the previous years' sales, and according to Pineland's marketing department, their customer list is growing by about 10-12% each year. As for potatoes, Pineland saw that Northern Maine was already saturated with fry and chip producers, so decided to go with fresh mash, which turned out to be a a good gamble. Its plant in Mars Hill will process about 70 million pounds of potatoes this year, and as of December, began shipping to 28 Sam's Club stores across New England.

"Well in the last fiscal year we've doubled the capacity of our potato plant in Mars Hill, and we've just about doubled the employment rolls up there. We are now at about 180 people," Haggett says.

Erik Hayward is a Vice President of the Libra Foundation, the non-profit philanthropic organization that took over stewardship of the New Gloucester complex fifteen years ago, with plans for a business park. The 1,600-acre property had long been home to the state's institution for developmentally disabled people.

Libra also purchased two adjacent farms, and decided to promote sustainable agriculture. Hayward says the goal for growing the market for Pineland Farms products has been to strike a balance between the "real" food aesthetic and modern convenience.

"And that is a fresh, all natural product, with a limited ingredient list that people can prepare very easily at home," Hayward says.

Pineland has also become a major producer of cheese. Of the million pounds of cheese that's made in Maine each year, as much as three quarters of that output- about 750,000 pounds- will bear a Pineland label.

But not everyone is thrilled. Some smaller cheese makers in the state have expressed concern over a model that allowed a well-moneyed non-profit to establish the largest creamery in the state — and then transition that venture to the competitive, for-profit market.

But Craig Denekas, President and CEO of Libra Foundation, says the mission of Pineland Farms is actually to support Maine's farming community, to help create a valuable farming brand, and to foster more ethical production.

"So, we're trying to address some of that and be progressive with what the modern consumer is asking for," Denekas says.

Disclosure: Craig Denekas is the former chair of MPBN's Board of Trustees.