Alaska

Alaska Exports & Foreign Investment

 

In 2023, Alaska exported not a record $5.2 billion of goods to the world.  In 2021, exports from Alaska supported an estimated 31 thousand jobs.

 

Exports from Alaska and Jobs

• Alaska was the 40^th largest state exporter of goods in 2023.
• In 2023, Alaska goods exports were $5.2 billion, an increase of 16 percent ($716 million) from its export level in 2013 (latest data available).
• Goods exports accounted for 7.8 percent of Alaska GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Alaska goods exports in 2021 (latest data available) supported an estimated 31 thousand jobs. Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from Alaska and Jobs

• In 2023, Alaska exported $1.3 billion of manufactured products.
• Alaska exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 3 thousand jobs in 2021 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is primary metal manufacturing, which accounted for $780 million of Alaska's total goods exports in 2023.
• Other top manufacturing exports are transportation equipment ($233 million), petroleum and coal products ($90 million), food and kindred products ($70 million), and machinery, except electrical ($32 million).

 

Exports Sustain Thousands of Alaska Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 755 companies exported from Alaska locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 543 (72 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
•  Small and medium-sized firms generated 27.1 percent of Alaska's total exports of goods in 2022.

 

Alaska Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was China. Alaska exported $1.2 billion in goods to China in 2023, representing 22 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• China was followed by Japan ($710 million), Korea, South ($702 million), Australia ($602 million), and Canada ($596 million).
• Alaska’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 38 percent of Alaska’s goods exports ($2.0 billion) in 2023 went to current FTA partners. 

Agriculture in Alaska depends on Exports

• Alaska is the country’s 50^th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $21 million in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2022 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).^[1]
• Top Agricultural exports were:

 

International Investment Creates Jobs in Alaska

• In 2021 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 13,600 Alaska workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Alaska included Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan.
• Foreign investment in Alaska was responsible for 5.8 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2021.

Alaska’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

In 2022 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Alaska recorded goods exports: Anchorage ($0 million), and Fairbanks ($0 million).