Alabama

Alabama Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2025, Alabama exported $23.7 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from Alabama supported an estimated 93 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Alabama and Jobs

• Alabama was the 22nd largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
• In 2025, Alabama goods exports were $23.7 billion, an increase of 22 percent ($4.3 billion) from its export level in 2015.
• Alabama goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 93 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 Alabama and Jobs

• In 2025, Alabama exported $21.1 billion of manufactured products.
• Alabama exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 82 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category was transportation equipment, which accounted for $11.4 billion of Alabama total goods exports in 2025.
• Other top manufacturing exports were chemicals ($1.9 billion), primary metal manufacturing ($1.8 billion), machinery, except electrical ($1.3 billion), and paper ($987 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Alabama Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 4,181 companies exported from Alabama locations in 2023 (latest data available). Of those, 3,337 (80 percent) were small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 16.4 percent of Alabama total exports of goods in 2023.

Alabama's Largest Export Markets

• The state’s largest export market was Canada. Alabama exported $4.3 billion in goods to Canada in 2025, representing 18 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Mexico ($4.0 billion), Germany ($3.4 billion), China ($2.0 billion), and India ($871 million).
• Alabama goods exports to major world areas included:

• 46 percent of Alabama goods exports ($10.8 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.

Alabama's Top Agricultural Exports

• Alabama was the country’s 30th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $1.6 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2024 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).1
• Top agricultural exports were:

	2024 Value	2024 State Rank
broiler meat	$447 million	4
other plant products	$315 million	21
cotton	$262 million	7
other livestock products	$94 million	15
other oilseeds and products	$85 million	7

International Investment Creates Jobs in Alabama

• In 2023 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed an estimated 141 thousand Alabama workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Alabama included Japan, Canada, and Germany.

Alabama’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

• In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Alabama recorded goods exports: Mobile ($2.6 billion), Huntsville ($2 billion), Birmingham ($2 billion), Daphne-Fairhope-Foley ($1.5 billion), Montgomery ($1.4 billion), Columbus ($873.5 million), Anniston-Oxford ($459.2 million), Decatur ($371.9 million), Auburn-Opelika ($282.7 million), Florence-Muscle Shoals ($198.2 million), Dothan ($172.7 million), and Gadsden ($32.4 million).

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^[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.