Breadcrumb

Kansas

Kansas Trade Facts

  • In 2018, Kansas exported $11.6 billion of Made-in-America goods to the world. In 2016, exports from Kansas supported an estimated 60 thousand jobs.

Exports from Kansas and Jobs

  • Kansas was the 31st largest state exporter of goods in 2018.
     
  • In 2018, Kansas goods exports were $11.6 billion, a decrease of 7 percent ($927 million) from its export level in 2008.
     
  • Goods exports accounted for 6.9 percent of Kansas GDP in 2018.
     
  • Kansas goods exports in 2016 (latest year available) supported an estimated 60 thousand jobs. Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Made-in-America Manufacturing Exports from Kansas and Jobs

  • In 2018, Kansas exported $9.5 billion of manufactured products.
     
  • Kansas exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 43 thousand jobs in 2016.
     
  • The state's largest manufacturing export category is transportation equipment, which accounted for $2.7 billion of Kansas's total goods exports in 2018.
     
  • Other top manufacturing exports are food & kindred products ($2.5 billion), machinery, except electrical ($1.1 billion), chemicals ($796 million), and computer & electronic products ($763 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Kansas Businesses many of which are SMEs

  • A total of 3,190 companies exported from Kansas locations in 2016 (latest year available). Of those, 2,644 (83 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
     
  • Small and medium-sized firms generated 27.6 percent of Kansas's total exports of goods in 2016.

Kansas Depends on World Markets

  • The state’s largest market was Mexico. Kansas exported $2.1 billion in goods to Mexico in 2018, representing 18 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
     
  • Mexico was followed by Canada ($1.9 billion), Japan ($1.0 billion), China ($657 million), and United Kingdom ($528 million).
     
  • Kansas’s exports (2018 values) to major world areas included:

 

2018 Value

APEC

$7.7 billion

Asia

$3.6 billion

European Union

$2.1 billion

South/Central America and Caribbean

$972 million

Sub-Saharan Africa

$200 million

 
  • 49 percent of Kansas’s exports ($5.6 billion) go to current FTA partners. 

Agriculture in Kansas depends on Exports

  • Kansas is the country’s 7th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $4.8 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2017 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).
     
  • Top Agricultural exports (2017 values) were:

 

2017 Value

 2017 State Rank

wheat

$968 million

2

soybeans

$896 million

10

beef and veal

$891 million

3

feeds and other feed grains

$452 million

6

corn

$418 million

7

 

International Investment Creates Jobs in Kansas

  • In 2015 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 58,000 Kansas workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Kansas included Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada.
     
  • Foreign investment in Kansas was responsible for 4.9 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2015.

Kansas’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

  • In 2017 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Kansas recorded goods exports: Kansas City ($7 billion), Wichita ($3.3 billion), St. Joseph ($763.9 million), Topeka ($300.7 million), Lawrence ($78.5 million), Manhattan ($24.6 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.