Economy
The economy of Portales and surrounding communities is strongly supported by the peanut and dairy industries, Eastern New Mexico University, value-added food processing, a growing military presence, and agriculture (including cattle ranching, dairy farming, and crop production). In recent years, the economy of Portales has grown significantly along with the price and volume of agricultural commodities being produced in the region. The area around Portales is also drawing increased attention for its abundance of steady wind power, solar energy, and biofuel feedstock.
Sunland Inc. in Portales is the largest U.S. exporter of certified organic peanut products and a major U.S. processor and distributor of sweet Valencia peanuts. DairiConcepts with Dairy Farmers of America processes local milk into milk solids for domestic and export use. Spanish energy corporation Abengoa Bioenergy operates a large ethanol plant in Portales, which was doubled in size in 2005, and Coca Cola Southwest Canners operates an energy drink canning and bottling plant.
The Portales economy is also connected to Cannon Air Force Base located approximately 13 miles (21 km) to the north. The base operates a leased military housing area in Portales with 150 single family dwellings. Major Portales retailers include Wal-Mart, True Value hardware, small privately-owned boutique shops, restaurants, and professional services in the downtown area, super save grocers(IGA), several furniture stores, and a number of discount retailers and auto dealers.
In 2002, the US Census recorded wholesale trade of $53,713,000 and retail trade of $147,174,000 in Roosevelt County. In 2006, data from econometrics firm EMSI predicted that by 2015, Roosevelt County would experience over 50% employment growth in several key economic sectors, including professional and business services, education and health services, and manufacturing. The same report predicted over 100% growth in leisure and hospitality services in the Portales area by 2015.
In 2007, Buxton Incorporated conducted a retail location analysis for Portales and found the retail market potential to be over $180 million, nearly $30 million higher than existing local retail trade, indicating demand exceeding supply.
Unemployment in Roosevelt County in 2007 averaged less than 3%, and the cost of living was approximately 83% of the US average, based primarily on the historically low but rising cost of housing in the area. By 2009, Portales continued to experience economic growth, with unemployment in the 3.7% range. Portales remained partially insulated from the national economic downturn of 2008-2010 due in part to a balanced economy based on agri-business and staple food product manufacturing (primarily peanut butter and milk), higher education, and a relatively strong local retail services market fueled by a growing population of Eastern New Mexico University students and Cannon Air Force Base employees.
Read more about this topic: Portales, New Mexico
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)