Iowa

Iowa Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2025, Iowa exported $16.2 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from Iowa supported an estimated 96 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Iowa and Jobs

• Iowa was the 29th largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
• In 2025, Iowa goods exports were $16.2 billion, an increase of 22 percent ($3.0 billion) from its export level in 2015.
• Iowa goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 96 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 Iowa and Jobs

• In 2025, Iowa exported $13.6 billion of manufactured products.
• Iowa exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 61 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is food & kindred products, which accounted for $3.4 billion of Iowa's total goods exports in 2025.
• Other top manufacturing exports are machinery, except electrical ($3.3 billion), chemicals ($2.9 billion), transportation equipment ($950 million), and computer & electronic products ($661 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Iowa Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 3,172 companies exported from Iowa locations in 2023 (latest data available). Of those, 2,565 (81 percent) were small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 14.2 percent of Iowa total exports of goods in 2023.

Iowa's Largest Export Markets

• The state’s largest export market was Canada. Iowa exported $4.9 billion in goods to Canada in 2025, representing 30 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Mexico ($3.2 billion), Japan ($834 million), China ($756 million), and Brazil ($696 million).
• Iowa goods exports to major world areas included:

• 61 percent of Iowa goods exports ($9.9 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.

Iowa's Top Agricultural Exports

• Iowa is the country’s 2nd largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $13.7 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
soybeans	$3.5 billion	2
pork	$2.9 billion	1
corn	$2.4 billion	1
feeds and other feed grains	$1.7 billion	1
soybean meal	$909 million	2

International Investment Creates Jobs in Iowa

• In 2023 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed an estimated 69 thousand workers in Iowa. Major sources of foreign investment in Iowa included the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.

Iowa’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

• In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Iowa recorded goods exports: Davenport-Moline-Rock Island ($5.1 billion), Omaha ($3.3 billion), Des Moines-West Des Moines ($1.9 billion), Sioux City ($1.5 billion), Waterloo-Cedar Falls ($1.3 billion), Cedar Rapids ($1.1 billion), Ames ($391 million), Iowa City ($367.6 million), and Dubuque ($173.6 million).