Nebraska

Nebraska Exports & Foreign Investment

 

In 2023, Nebraska exported not a record $8.0 billion of goods to the world.  In 2021, exports from Nebraska supported an estimated 63 thousand jobs.

 

Exports from Nebraska and Jobs

• Nebraska was the 34^th largest state exporter of goods in 2023.
• In 2023, Nebraska goods exports were $8.0 billion, an increase of 8 percent ($594 million) from its export level in 2013 (latest data available).
• Goods exports accounted for 4.5 percent of Nebraska GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Nebraska goods exports in 2021 (latest data available) supported an estimated 63 thousand jobs. Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from Nebraska and Jobs

• In 2023, Nebraska exported $6.8 billion of manufactured products.
• Nebraska exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 27 thousand jobs in 2021 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is food and kindred products, which accounted for $3.1 billion of Nebraska's total goods exports in 2023.
• Other top manufacturing exports are machinery, except electrical ($1.1 billion), chemicals ($819 million), computer and electronic products ($378 million), and transportation equipment ($370 million).

 

Exports Sustain Thousands of 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 Canada. Nebraska exported $1.7 billion in goods to Canada in 2023, representing 21 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Mexico ($1.5 billion), Japan ($699 million), China ($666 million), and Korea, South ($570 million).
• Nebraska’s exports to major world areas included:

 

 

• 55 percent of Nebraska’s goods exports ($4.4 billion) in 2023 went to current FTA partners. 

Agriculture in Nebraska depends on Exports

• Nebraska is the country’s 5^th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $10.0 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2022 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).^[1]
• Top Agricultural exports were:

 

 

International Investment Creates Jobs in Nebraska

• In 2021 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 38,600 Nebraska workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Nebraska included Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada.
• Foreign investment in Nebraska was responsible for 4.6 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2021.

Nebraska’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

In 2022 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Nebraska recorded goods exports: Omaha-Council Bluffs ($4.6 billion), Lincoln ($1.2 billion), and Grand Island ($764.6 million).