Kansas Exports and Foreign Investment
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In 2025, Kansas exported a record $14.6 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from Kansas supported an estimated 55 thousand jobs (latest data available).
Exports from Kansas and Jobs
- Kansas was the 31st largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
- In 2025, Kansas goods exports were $14.6 billion, an increase of 37 percent ($3.9 billion) from its export level in 2015.
- Goods exports accounted for 6.1 percent of Kansas GDP in 2025.
- Kansas goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 55 thousand jobs (latest data available). Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.
Manufacturing Exports from Kansas and Jobs
- In 2025, Kansas exported $12.6 billion of manufactured products.
- Kansas exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 43 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
- The state's largest manufacturing export category is transportation equipment, which accounted for $3.8 billion of Kansas's total goods exports in 2025.
- Other top manufacturing exports are food & kindred products ($3.2 billion), computer & electronic products ($1.5 billion), machinery, except electrical ($1.0 billion), and chemicals ($976 million).
Exports Sustain Thousands of Kansas Businesses Many of Which are SMEs
- A total of 3,156 companies exported from Kansas locations in 2024 (latest data available). Of those, 2,591 (82 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
- Small and medium-sized firms generated 17.7 percent of Kansas's total exports of goods in 2024.
Kansas's Largest Export Markets
- The state’s largest market was Mexico. Kansas exported $3.8 billion in goods to Mexico in 2025, representing 26 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
- Mexico was followed by Canada ($2.4 billion), Japan ($915 million), Germany ($638 million), and South Korea ($560 million).
- Kansas goods exports to major world areas included:
|
Region |
2025 Value |
|
APEC |
$9.9 billion |
|
Asia |
$3.7 billion |
|
European Union |
$2.1 billion |
|
South/Central America and Caribbean |
$1.3 billion |
|
Sub-Saharan Africa |
$186 million |
- 54 percent of Kansas goods exports ($8.0 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.
Kansas's Top Agricultural Exports
- Kansas is the country’s 8th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $5.4 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2024 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).[1]
- Top agricultural exports were:
|
Product |
2024 Value |
2024 State Rank |
|
beef and veal |
$1.4 billion |
2 |
|
wheat |
$838 million |
2 |
|
soybeans |
$715 billion |
12 |
|
corn |
$630 million |
7 |
|
feeds and other feed grains |
$594 million |
6 |
International Investment Creates Jobs in Kansas
- In 2024 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 77,900 Kansas workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Kansas included Canada, Germany, and Switzerland.
- Foreign investment in Kansas was responsible for 6.0 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2024.
Kansas’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
- In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Kansas recorded goods exports: Kansas City ($10.9 billion), Wichita ($4.4 billion), St. Joseph ($753.4 million), Topeka ($438.2 million), Joplin ($341.8 million), Manhattan ($100.5 million), and Lawrence ($93 million).
[1] Estimates of state exports of agricultural products by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and goods exports by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce are based on different methodologies and are not directly comparable.




