In addition to actual harvesting, the food processing industry provides thousands more jobs in directly related industries such as food wholesaling and retailing. More jobs are linked through manufacturers of packaging materials, industrial and agricultural chemicals, biotechnology products, and farm and food production machinery. Examples of Product Leadership California's famous produce are the ingredients in everything from soup to nuts. Crops grown in California may be lightly processed, or go through many steps before reaching market. Examples of lightly processed products are raisins, dates, prunes, almonds and walnuts from the state's giant cooperative processors, such as Sun Maid Raisins, Blue Diamond Growers, and Diamond Walnut Growers.
Further processing makes California crops major ingredients in other nationally known foods.
Odwalla Fruit Juices use fruits and vegetables primarily grown in the Central Valley. See's Candies uses the state's famous raisins and dates, in addition to local nuts and cream. Hershey's is also the nation's largest user of California almonds. The export market holds the greatest potential for expanding sales of California agricultural products with a world market of six billion people. California is the leading agricultural export state and the sixth largest exporter in the world.