Nebraska

Nebraska Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, Nebraska exported $8.2 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from Nebraska supported an estimated 63 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Nebraska and Jobs

• Nebraska was the 35th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, Nebraska goods exports were $8.2 billion, an increase of 3 percent ($271 million) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 4.5 percent of Nebraska GDP in 2024.
• Nebraska goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 63 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 Nebraska and Jobs

• In 2024, Nebraska exported $6.9 billion of manufactured products.
• Nebraska exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 30 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is food & kindred products, which accounted for $3.4 billion of Nebraska's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are machinery, except electrical ($886 million), chemicals ($802 million), transportation equipment ($507 million), and computer & electronic products ($345 million).

Exports Sustain Nebraska Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 1,754 companies exported from Nebraska locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 1,402 (80 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 19.6 percent of Nebraska's total exports of goods in 2022.

Nebraska Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Mexico. Nebraska exported $1.7 billion in goods to Mexico in 2024, representing 21 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Mexico was followed by Canada ($1.6 billion), South Korea ($734 million), Japan ($699 million), and China ($652 million).
• Nebraska’s exports to major world areas included:

• 57 percent of Nebraska’s goods exports ($4.7 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Nebraska depends on Exports

• Nebraska is the country’s 5th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $7.9 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2023 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).
• Top Agricultural exports were:

	2023 Value	2023 State Rank
soybeans	$1.8 billion	7
beef and veal	$1.6 billion	1
corn	$1.5 billion	3
feeds and other feed grains	$1.1 billion	3
soybean meal	$464 million	7

International Investment Creates Jobs in Nebraska

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 39,000 Nebraska workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Nebraska included Japan, the United Kingdom and France.
• Foreign investment in Nebraska was responsible for 4.5 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Nebraska’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Nebraska recorded goods exports: Sioux City ($1.5 billion), Grand Island ($868.6 million), Lincoln ($1.1 billion), and Omaha ($3.4 billion).