Maine

Maine Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, Maine exported $3.1 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from Maine supported an estimated 12 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Maine and Jobs

• Maine was the 45th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, Maine goods exports were $3.1 billion, an increase of 9 percent ($251 million) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 3.2 percent of Maine GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Maine goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 12 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 Maine and Jobs

• In 2024, Maine exported $2.2 billion of manufactured products.
• Maine exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 8,000 jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is transportation equipment, which accounted for $454 million of Maine's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are paper ($387 million), computer & electronic products ($386 million), chemicals ($279 million), and machinery, except electrical ($165 million).

Exports Sustain Maine Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 1,803 companies exported from Maine locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 1,519 (84 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 55.4 percent of Maine's total exports of goods in 2022.

Maine Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. Maine exported $1.3 billion in goods to Canada in 2024, representing 42 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Japan ($164 million), Malaysia ($156 million), Netherlands ($155 million), and Germany ($146 million).
• Maine’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 51 percent of Maine’s goods exports ($1.6 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Maine depends on Exports

• Maine is the country’s 42nd largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $329 million in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2022 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).
• Top Agricultural exports were:

	2022 Value	2022 State Rank
other plant products	$126 million	35
other livestock products	$56 million	30
vegetables, processed	$50 million	17
vegetables, fresh	$29 million	17
dairy products	$23 million	32

International Investment Creates Jobs in Maine

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 36,800 Maine workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Maine included Canada, the United Kingdom and France.
• Foreign investment in Maine was responsible for 6.8 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Maine’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Maine recorded goods exports: Bangor ($277.2 million), Lewiston-Auburn ($145 million), and Portland-South Portland ($1.3 billion).