Iberia Parish Economic Profile | One Acadiana (2024)

The Heart of Cajun Country

Iberia Parish, Louisiana and its progressive communities are the place for exciting opportunities. Iberia Parish offers a unique mix of southern fun and hospitality nestled in the heart of “Cajun Country.” Moss-draped Live Oak trees and beautiful antebellum homes serve as the backdrop for a hard-working labor force, cutting edge medical and industrial technology along with worldwide leaders in the exploration of oil and natural gas.

The Iberia Industrial Development Foundation (IDF) serves as the primary facilitator of Economic Development Activities for the Parish of Iberia, Louisiana; the communities of New Iberia, Jeanerette, Loreauville and Delcambre; as well as the Port of Iberia, Acadiana Regional Airport, and LeMaire Memorial Airport Industrial Park Complexes.

Abundance of Assets

An abundant labor force, an excellent intermodal transportation and data network, readily available land for business relocation or expansion centrally located along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and a strong economic development plan for the future all combine to make Iberia Parish and it’s communities a place that offers amazing potential for growth and success.

A wide variety of national and international companies are headquartered in Iberia Parish, which is strategically located on Louisiana’s coast between New Orleans and Houston. And with the combination of the Port of Iberia’s access to the Gulf of Mexico, an 8,000 foot runway at the Acadiana Regional Airport and its location on the future corridor of Federal Interstate 49, intermodal transportation into and out of Iberia Parish is easy.

The Port of Iberia is a 2,000 acre industrial and manufacturing site surrounding a manmade port complex. The port has access to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf of Mexico through its own Commercial Canal and has access to the Mississippi River through major ports in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

The Port of Iberia is located in the heart of Cajun country along the Louisiana Gulf Coast between Houston and New Orleans. Home to over 100 companies with over 5,000 employees involved in oil and gas fabrication and production, materials handling, and marine services, our productive workforce is known worldwide. The Port of Iberia has water, rail and four-lane access and a fully instrumented 8,000 foot runway general aviation airport within three miles.

Great assets, top workforce, a pro-business community and our Cajun culture make this area a great place to live, work and play. Let us show you the opportunities the Port of Iberia has to offer. The Port of Iberia has expanded its waterfront property and has completed new bulkheading and dredging projects. The possibilities are unlimited when you add to this the existing industrial facilities, the constant flow of raw materials, and the multimillion dollar public dock facility.

Acadiana Regional Airport (ARA) is a fully-certificated General Aviation Airport featuring an 8,002-foot long, 200-foot wide lighted concrete runway and fully instrumented airfield, strategically situated between the major markets of Houston and New Orleans. The Airport Industrial Park offers land to expand, with 1,200 acres available for development, including prime runway and taxiway frontage.

Acadiana Regional Airport stands ready to meet the challenge of air-industrial development needs in Iberia Parish and all of Acadiana. We have over 1,000 acres of industrial land, in parcels from 2 to 200 acres; railroad on-site and extendable; industrial roadways and all utilities are available for immediate development in light, medium or heavy applications. Into that mix of infrastructure, add the all-weather capable airport including Acadiana’s longest, strongest, lighted full ILS instrumented, controlled land runway and lighted seaway, and you have the necessary ingredients for successful development or expansion of either a local, regional, national, or international business.

Acadiana Regional Airport is home to more than 50 companies and 1750 employees, including the world’s largest provider of helicopter services with Air Logistics, a Bristow Company, Aggreko, the global leader in the rental of power, temperature control and oil-free compressed air systems and AvEx, the world’s leader in aviation exterior painting.

Located just north of U.S. Highway 90 (the future Interstate 49 corridor) and just south of Louisiana Highway 182, the airport also features direct rail access, a 5,000-foot lighted water runway for amphibious aircraft, and a rail-to-truck off loading facility. And the airport’s close proximity to the Port of Iberia and its 13-foot-deep main navigation channel spotlights the intermodal transportation available. By air, water or ground, you can watch your business take off at Acadiana Regional Airport!

The Heart of Cajun Country

There’s always something interesting, fun or exciting going on in Iberia Parish. We love sharing our sense of community with our friends and neighbors, so local fairs and festivals abound. Our close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico makes saltwater fishing a popular pastime, and freshwater sport opportunities can be found in abundance due to our numerous bayous, lakes and of course, the Atchafalaya Basin.

Iberia Parish is home to numerous fairs and festivals throughout the year, including Mardi Gras parades, the Sugar Cane Festival, the World Championship Gumbo Cookoff, the Bunk Johnson Festival, the Delcambre Shrimp Festival, the Lydia Cajun Food Festival and the Cajun Hot Sauce Festival. In addition, downtown New Iberia hosts several Art Walks, a Farmer’s Market and numerous other parades and commemorative services.

Avery Island, Louisiana, the birthplace of TABASCO® brand pepper sauce, has been owned for over 180 years by the interrelated Marsh, Avery and McIlhenny families. Lush subtropical flora and venerable live oaks cover this geological oddity, which is one of five “islands” rising in atypical and mystical fashion well above south Louisiana’s flat coastal marshes.

The island occupies roughly twenty-two hundred acres and sits atop a deposit of solid rock salt thought to be deeper than Mt. Everest is high. Geologists believe this deposit is the remnant of a buried ancient seabed, pushed to the surface by the sheer weight of surrounding alluvial sediments. Although covered with a layer of fertile soil, salt springs may have attracted prehistoric settlers to the Island as early as twelve thousand years ago. Today, Avery Island remains the home of the TABASCO® brand pepper sauce factory, as well as Jungle Gardens and its Bird City wildfowl refuge. The TABASCO® factory and gardens are open to the public.