The 2026 State of Organic Co-Packing: 1,716 certified co-packers, counted

This report is for anyone planning an organic product who wants to know, before the first phone call, how many certified co-packers could make it and where they are. We counted every USDA organic certified co-packer in our directory: 1,716 of them in 48 states, certified by 39 different certifiers, from USDA's record of October 1, 2026. The short version: almost half are in the West, one in four is in California, three certifiers cover 63% of them, and some product types have real options in fewer than 20 states. Every figure below comes from that record and our own reading of each company's website, and the last section says exactly how we counted.

The numbers at a glance

Three things stand out. Organic co-packing is concentrated, both by place and by certifier. Most of the plants carry a USDA handling date from 2016 or later. And the public information about what each plant will actually take on is thin, which is why asking well matters more than searching longer.

What we counted

A co-packer, for this report, is a USDA organic certified operation with a certified handling scope that makes products for other brands. USDA's Organic INTEGRITY Database marks some operations with a "Co-Packer" flag, and 1,299 of our listings carry it. The other 417 have no flag, but their own website says they make products for other brands, and we saved the quote that says so for each one. We added both groups together to get 1,716.

This is a count of the co-packers in our directory, not a census of every organic plant that would take a project. A certified plant that never flags itself and never says so on its website is not in it. So treat every number here as a floor: there are at least this many.

If you want the co-packers that are not organic certified as well, the directory lists them too, each one clearly marked. They are left out of every count in this report.

Where they are

By Census region, the West has 787 of the 1,716 (46%). The Midwest has 350 (20%), the Northeast 290 (17%), and the South 289 (17%).

California, Washington and New Jersey together hold 633 of them, 37% of the total. California alone has 438, one in every four.

At the other end, 12 states have five or fewer: Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Wyoming. Two states, Alaska and West Virginia, have none in our directory, and neither does the District of Columbia.

What this means for you: if you are in a thin state, your realistic search area is your Census division or region, not your state line. Freight on finished goods is a cost you pay every run, so a plant two states away can still be the right answer, but it is worth knowing early that you will be shipping.

What they make

We sort each co-packer into one or more of 14 product categories. For 651 companies we read their own website; for the rest we used the products named on their USDA certificate record. A company can sit in several categories, and 352 of the 1,716 have no category we could assign with confidence, so the category counts add up to more than 1,364 and are still a floor.

Dry goods are by far the deepest category, with 580 co-packers in 43 states. It covers spice blending, grain and flour handling, and dry mixes.

California leads every category, but by very different margins. In wine, beer and spirits it holds 38 of 71, more than half. In pet food it holds only 6 of 45, and Illinois (5) and Washington (4) are close behind. After pet food, baked goods are the least California-heavy category at 19%, with Illinois (9) and Pennsylvania (8) next.

Some second places are worth knowing about:

• Supplements: Utah has 29 and Florida 26, behind California's 67.
• Dairy and plant-based: Wisconsin has 20 and Illinois 14. The Midwest has 60 of the 166, almost as many as the West's 65.
• Snacks and confections: Illinois has 24, the most outside California, and the Midwest has 66 of the 240.
• Sauces and condiments: Texas and Wisconsin have 11 each.
• Oils and vinegars: New Jersey has 12 and New York 11, so the Northeast has 34 of the 164.

What this means for you: the category table tells you how hard your search will be. A dry mix brand has hundreds of certified options and can afford to be picky about minimums and location. A brand making an organic spirit, frozen dessert or pet food has fewer than 100 listed options nationally and should plan on a wider search and a longer lead time.

Each category by region

The same categories, split by the four Census regions. This is the table to use when you are deciding how far you are willing to ship.

Outside the West, the Midwest is the deepest region for most food categories, and it comes close to the West in dairy and plant-based. The South leads the Midwest and Northeast in supplements and personal care, and the Northeast leads the Midwest and South in beverages, coffee and tea, oils and vinegars, and wine, beer and spirits.

Where the gaps are

The thinnest categories are thin in two ways: few plants, and few states.

Frozen and desserts has one of the sharpest regional gaps: the Northeast has only 7 of the 96, against 54 in the West. Pet food has only 4 in the South. Wine, beer and spirits has 5 in the South and 7 in the Midwest.

If you are in one of these gaps, widen the search to the whole region from the start rather than discovering the gap after a month of calls, and ask your certifier early about any plan that splits production between plants.

Examplea founder in Massachusetts with an organic frozen dessert. The Northeast has only 7 of the 96 frozen and dessert co-packers we list. A search limited to the Northeast means a short list. Adding the Midwest (20) brings the list to 27, and adding the South (15) brings it to 42, at the cost of longer frozen freight. Knowing those three numbers on day one turns "why can nobody take my project" into a clear choice between a short list nearby and a longer one farther away. This is an illustration built from the table above, not a real brand.

Who certifies them

Every certified operation has a certifier, the organization named on its USDA record. Our 1,716 co-packers name 39 of them, but three dominate:

Together they certify 1,075 of the 1,716, or 63%. Eight certifiers have five or fewer of our co-packers each.

Counting only the 1,299 with USDA's Co-Packer flag, the same three certify 69%. Adding the 417 plants found through their own websites spreads the work out a little, but the pattern holds.

What to check on any certificate is that it is current and its scope covers your product. A certifier page is still a useful shortcut: if one certifier leads in your state, its page shows a large share of your options in one list.

When their handling status took effect

USDA's record gives each certified operation an "Effective Date of HANDLING Status". Every one of our 1,716 has one. The median year is 2018.

The 2002 cluster stands out: 124 records carry a date in that single year. USDA's national organic rule went into effect on October 21, 2002, according to the USDA Economic Research Service, and that is when all organic certifiers had to be accredited under it. That is the likely reason so many long-running plants carry a 2002 date. We read that cluster as a mark of the national program starting, not as a year when 124 new plants opened.

At the recent end, 131 records have a 2025 date, and 91 have a date in 2026 up to USDA's October 1 record.

Two cautions before you read this as a growth chart. First, these are only the plants that are certified today; a plant that dropped its certification is not in our count, so older years are undercounted. Second, the date alone does not tell you how long a plant has been organic. So a recent date is a question to ask the plant, not a warning sign.

What this means for you: more than a third of these co-packers have an effective date in 2021 or later. Ask any plant how long it has made organic products for other brands, and for organic brand references.

How much they tell you up front

We read 651 of the 1,716 companies' websites in detail, for what they make, how they make it, certifications and minimums. Only 21 of the 1,716 mention minimum orders on their website at all, and only 14 give a number. The other 7 say things like "low MOQs" or "no minimum orders".

That is the most practical finding in this report. Minimum order decides whether a small brand can work with a plant at all, and almost no certified co-packer says it publicly. Our post on real co-packer minimums looks at what those few published minimums say.

So plan to ask. A short, consistent list of questions, sent the same way to every plant, makes the answers easy to compare.

What changed since our first count

Our first count, where organic co-packers are, covered the 1,299 co-packers with USDA's Co-Packer flag, in 46 states. This report adds the 417 certified plants that do not carry the flag but say on their own websites that they make products for other brands. That brings the total to 1,716 and the state count to 48.

The picture did not change shape. The West still holds almost half, California still holds about a quarter, and the same three certifiers still lead. Only 5 of the 417 added plants are in the two new states, Montana and South Dakota. The other 412 are in states that already had flagged co-packers, which is useful in itself: a brand in those places has more choice than the USDA flag alone suggests.

We will update this report each quarter from the latest USDA monthly record, and add a dated note when a number changes.

Five ways to use this report

1. Size your search first. Find your category in the table above. Under 100 national options means plan for a regional or national search from day one.
2. Draw your search area by region, not state. Use the state counts to see whether your own state is deep or thin, then add neighbors in your Census division.
3. Start from the certifier that leads where you are. One certifier page can show a large share of a state's options.
4. Ask every plant the same short list. Minimum order, current certificate and its scope, the date on their record, and two organic brand references. A one-page brief gets better answers than a cold call.
5. Let new plants find you. Gaps change month to month. A free new co-packer alert emails you when a co-packer for your product and state joins the directory, at most once a week.

If you would rather skip the search, a free match request takes about a minute: we ask the certified co-packers that fit, and you meet only the ones who say yes.

How we counted

• Source. USDA's Organic INTEGRITY Database monthly download of October 1, 2026, as imported into our directory. We keep US operations whose operation and handling scope are both certified, and either carry USDA's Co-Packer flag (1,299) or say on their own website that they make products for other brands (417, each with the quote saved).
• Places. State from the USDA record: the physical address for 1,345 listings, a mailing address for 368 where USDA gives only that, and a corrected state for 3. Regions are the four Census regions.
• Categories. Read from the company's own website for 651 listings. For the rest, from the products named on the USDA record, where a category needs at least two matching products (one when the list is short), so one stray word does not put a company in the wrong category. 352 listings have no category.
• Dates. The Effective Date of HANDLING Status field on the USDA record, by calendar year.
• Minimums. Counted only when the company's own website mentions a minimum order; "give a number" means the wording includes a quantity, weight or dollar amount.
• Re-run. Every figure here prints from python blog_numbers.py in our repository, after a site build. If USDA changes a record, our next monthly refresh picks it up and this report will be updated each quarter.

Spotted something wrong? Email info@copackerindex.com and we will correct it within 48 hours, with a dated note here.

Sources

• USDA Organic INTEGRITY Database, monthly download of October 1, 2026, as imported into our directory. Every count above re-run with python blog_numbers.py on October 25, 2026.
• USDA Economic Research Service, U.S. Organic Farming in 2000-2001: Adoption of Certified Systems, read October 25, 2026.