Kansas City becoming hub for animal health care industry

US - The vast cattle pens that once helped move much of the nation's meat supply are gone, replaced by aging warehouses and the frequent belief that this former frontier town left its agricultural roots far behind.
calendar icon 11 January 2007
clock icon 2 minute read
But not so fast. With little apparent care and feeding, the business of keeping animals well and productive has continued to thrive here, with one consultant estimating that about one out of every three dollars spent around the globe on animal health care flows through Kansas City.

It's a statistic that has shocked many of the city's business leaders and led them to suddenly reverse course, embracing Kansas City's "cow town" past and using it as leverage to gain an even larger share of the market.

"I don't think anyone had sat down and put a pencil to it," said Dallas-based consultant Ron Brakke, who released his findings last year.

According to Brakke, animal health companies headquartered in the area, which include firms making vaccines and other pharmaceutical drugs for livestock and pets, now account for roughly a third of both that industry's $14.2 billion in global sales and its $5 billion in U.S. sales.

He added that the area's share of global sales has doubled since 2001, when five of the companies had yet to move to Kansas City or weren't involved in animal health.

Area business and government leaders have kicked off an aggressive initiative to create an animal science "corridor" in the region and attract even more like-minded companies.

They're also hoping expanding the knowledge of their expertise in animal health will boost their efforts to develop a life science center.

Source: Belleville News Democrat
© 2000 - 2024 - Global Ag Media. All Rights Reserved | No part of this site may be reproduced without permission.