Nebraska

Nebraska Exports and Foreign Investment

• In 2025, Nebraska exported $7.8 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from Nebraska supported an estimated 47 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Nebraska and Jobs

• Nebraska was the 36th largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
• In 2025, Nebraska goods exports were $7.8 billion, an increase of 17 percent ($1.1 billion) from its export level in 2015.
• Goods exports accounted for 3.9 percent of Nebraska GDP in 2025.
• Nebraska goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 47 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 Nebraska and Jobs

• In 2025, Nebraska exported $6.2 billion of manufactured products.
• Nebraska exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 28 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is food & kindred products, which accounted for $3.0 billion of Nebraska's total goods exports in 2025.
• Other top manufacturing exports are machinery, except electrical ($861 million), chemicals ($778 million), transportation equipment ($394 million), and computer & electronic products ($332 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Nebraska Businesses Many of Which are SMEs

• A total of 1,761 companies exported from Nebraska locations in 2024 (latest data available). Of those, 1,412 (80 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 19.5 percent of Nebraska's total exports of goods in 2024.

Nebraska's Largest Export Markets

• The state’s largest market was Mexico. Nebraska exported $1.9 billion in goods to Mexico in 2025, representing 25 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Mexico was followed by Canada ($1.5 billion), South Korea ($726 million), Japan ($614 million), and China ($302 million).
• Nebraska goods exports to major world areas included:

• 61 percent of Nebraska goods exports ($4.8 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.

Nebraska's Top Agricultural Exports

• Nebraska is the country’s 5th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $8.2 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	$1.7 billion	1
corn	$1.7 billion	3
soybeans	$1.6 billion	5
feeds and other feed grains	$1.2 billion	3
grain products, processed	$458 million	3

International Investment Creates Jobs in Nebraska

• In 2024 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 39,400 Nebraska workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Nebraska included Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
• Foreign investment in Nebraska was responsible for 4.1 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2024.

Nebraska’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

• In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Nebraska recorded goods exports: Omaha ($3.3 billion), Sioux City ($1.5 billion), Lincoln ($1.1 billion), and Grand Island ($853.9 million).