Top Selling Products From Each State

Alaska shipped $1.3 billion worth of fish overseas in 2019, more than any other product in the state and equivalent to just over one-quarter of the state’s total exports. A notoriously dangerous industry, Alaska’s commercial fishing industry claimed 31 lives a year on average in the 1980s, although those numbers have declined in recent years. Still, the state’s fishermen face other problems at the moment. The harvests of salmon — one of the state’s most popular fish — in 2019 and 2020 have been poor, while prices have continued to be low due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like a number of states, Arizona’s highest-value export is airplanes and airplane parts. Arizona shipped $2.7 billion worth of airplanes and airplane parts outside of the country in 2019. The state is home to a substantial aerospace industry, with Boeing and Northrop Grumman manufacturing plants, among others.

The primary export of Arkansas is airplanes and airplane parts. However, the total export value of these products is relatively small, at just $1.0 billion annually, the third smallest total of the 14 states for which the top export is aircraft and associated parts. According to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the state is home to the operations of 180 aerospace defence companies, including Lockheed Martin and Dassault Falcon Jet. Over 4,000 people in the state are employed directly in aerospace product manufacturing.

Rice is another leading export from the state. Arkansas is by far the largest rice producer in the United States, yielding 842.6 million pounds in 2019 alone.

California’s top export in 2019 was automobiles. Electric car manufacturer Tesla has a 5.3 million square foot manufacturing facility in Fremont, California, that employs over 10,000 people. Japanese auto giant Toyota also has four engineering and manufacturing facilities in the state.

California has the largest economy of any state, and the state’s $8.9 billion in auto exports in 2019 tops the total value of all exports annually in over a dozen states.

Colorado exported an estimated $538 million worth of semiconductors in 2019, the most of any product category. According to the trade group Semiconductor Industry Association, there are 31 semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Colorado that support some 2,100 jobs.

Colorado’s second leading export is fresh beef. In 2018, the state exported $476 million worth of fresh beef, accounting for 5.7% of the state’s total exports. According to the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, the state has more than 2.8 million heads of cattle.

Aircraft and aircraft parts are by far Connecticut’s largest export, accounting for 36.8% of the state’s total goods exported. These goods were valued at $6.0 billion in 2019. The next largest export, semiconductor manufacturing machine parts, accounted for just 3.0% of the state’s total exports. The state is home to operations of a number of aerospace companies, including Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, and GKN Aerospace.

Delaware exported $1.0 billion worth of medication in 2019, more than any other product. The state is home to the U.S. headquarters of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. Other drug makers in the state include Incyte Corporation, Genencor International, and SPI Pharma. Many major drugmakers, including Teva Pharmaceuticals, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer, are also incorporated in Delaware. Canada is the largest international buyer of products Delaware exports, followed by the United Kingdom.

Florida shipped $7.5 billion worth of aircraft and aircraft parts in 2019, accounting for 13.4% of the total value of all of the state’s exports that year — more than any other product. Industry titans including Boeing, Embraer, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, and Sikorsky have operations in the state. Florida is also the final point of assembly of the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 private jets of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. Brazil is Florida’s largest trading partner.

Like a number of states, Georgia’s top export is airplane and airplane parts, and the state is in fact one of the largest such exporters in the country. Nearly $8.8 billion worth of airplane and airplane parts left Georgia for destinations abroad last year. An estimated 99,000 people in Georgia are employed in the aerospace industry.

In addition to airplanes and airplane parts, the state exports cars and passenger vehicles. Car makers operating in Georgia include General Motors, Honda, Kia, and Porsche. Combined, aircraft and automobiles and their parts account for more than one-quarter of the goods that leave the state for other countries.

Hawaii exported only $454,000 million worth of goods in 2019, by far the least of any state. Hawaii’s largest export is petroleum, which accounted for 29.3% of the state’s total export value last year. Though the state has no oil reserves, it does have two refineries located near the port in Honolulu. Hawaii’s refineries receive crude oil from a number of foreign countries, located along the Pacific Rim and in the Middle East and Africa. South Korea, Singapore, and Japan are Hawaii’s top export destinations.

Idaho exported more than $255 billion in diodes and transistors in 2019. Diodes and transistors — which are semiconductors used in electronic devices — accounted for 7.4% of all exports from the state in 2019. Semiconductor makers in the state include ON Semiconductor, a company that employs some 630 people in the Pocatello area, and American Semiconductor, Inc., a Boise-based company with a client list that includes the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and NASA.

Telephone sets, including wireless and cell phones, are the top export product category in Illinois. The state shipped $2.6 million in phones abroad in 2019. Petroleum oil is the state’s second largest export. Illinois is home to several oil refineries, including some operated by ExxonMobil, Marathon, and Phillips 66. The state exported nearly $1.9 billion worth of refined oil in 2019.

Indiana exported $3.2 billion worth of medication in 2019, the most of any product category. The state is home to the headquarters of Eli Lilly, which was founded in Indianapolis in 1876 and is today one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world by revenue.

Automobile manufacturing has also been a central part of Indiana’s economy for more than 100 years. In 1909, Indiana was producing more cars than any state other than Michigan, and today, the state is home to several major automobile plants, including General Motors in Fort Wayne; Honda in Greensburg; Subaru in Lafayette; Toyota in Princeton; and AM General in Mishawaka. In 2019, Indiana exported $3.2 billion worth of automobile parts, the second most of any product category.

Iowa was home to the first tractor manufacturing plant in the world, and today the state has the largest tractor export value of any state. In 2019, Iowa exported $875.4 million worth of tractors, accounting for 6.6% of all exports from the state.

The state also exports a large volume of other products related to the agriculture sector. In 2019 Iowa exported $848.1 million worth of pork and $758.8 million worth of corn — the second and third leading exports from the state.

Kansas exported $2.3 billion worth of airplanes and airplane parts in 2019, accounting for about one-fifth of all exports from the state. Aircraft manufacturing has long held an important role in the Kansas economy. Wichita was the center of aviation innovation in the 1920s and 1930s, with many of the nation’s earliest aircraft pioneers founding enterprises there that would ultimately lead to some of today’s industry giants.

Still a dominant force in the Kansas economy, the aerospace product and parts manufacturing industry employs approximately 41,500 workers throughout the state. Major aircraft manufacturers in the state include Airbus, Boeing, and Bombardier Aerospace, among many others.

Like a number of U.S. states, airplanes and airplane parts is Kentucky’s largest export, accounting for more than 44% of the state’s $11.7 billion in total exports. The state is home to a reported 79 aerospace facilities — including some run by General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon — which employ more than 19,000 people. Mexico, Canada, and Japan are the top three export destinations for products from Kentucky.

Petroleum is Louisiana’s most valuable export by a wide margin. The Bayou State exported more than $20 billion worth of petroleum in 2019, equal to more than 32% of the total value of the state’s exports that year.

While petroleum drilling has been an integral part of the state’s economy for decades, the industry has suffered some major setbacks in recent years. Hurricane Katrina damaged offshore rigs in 2005, curbing extraction for months. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded, killing 11 workers and spilling millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf. Due to reduced oil prices and climbing production costs, Louisiana’s total crude oil output hit a six-decade low in 2019.

Crustaceans, such as lobster, account for more than 13% of the $2.7 billion value of goods exported from Maine in 2019. While just over half of Maine’s total exports, including lobster, end up in Canada, Maine would likely export even more of its top product if not for the U.S. trade war with China. In the first half of 2018, Maine exported $87 million worth of lobster to China. However, following tariffs imposed in July 2018, demand for Maine lobster in China dropped a staggering 84%.

In 2019, Maryland exported $1.6 billion worth of aircraft and parts, a 110% increase from the year prior. The state is home to facilities of some of the nation’s top aerospace and defense companies, including BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman

In recent years, Maryland has also cultivated a new export market — petroleum gas. While the state has very few natural gas resources and in 2017 became the third U.S. state to ban fracking, in early 2018, the state opened a terminal for the export of natural gas in Chesapeake Bay. The terminal — which employs 4,500 workers and was the most expensive private sector project in Maryland history, according to some officials — mostly ships natural gas from Pennsylvania and other surrounding states. In 2019, Maryland exported $1.5 billion of petroleum gas, the second most of any product category in the state.

Massachusetts exported $2.7 billion worth of medical instruments in 2019, more than any other product category. Medical instruments accounted for 10.3% of the state’s total exports, followed by gold and semiconductor manufacturing machines, which accounted for 8.1% and 4.4% of exports, respectively. Medical device makers in the state include Abiomed, Boston Scientific, and Philips Healthcare. The top three foreign markets for exports from Massachusetts are Canada, China, and Mexico.

Home to Detroit, a city with a name often synonymous with the American auto industry, Michigan’s most valuable export is automobile parts. The headquarters of the Big Three automakers — Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford — are in the state. After auto parts, commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles are the state’s next two biggest exports, each accounting for a little over a 10th of all annual export revenue.

One of the biggest destinations for Michigan’s exports is China, which imported more than 3 million GM vehicles and over half a million Ford vehicles in 2019 alone.

Minnesota’s exports are relatively diversified with no single commodity or product accounting for more than 7% of the total goods that leave the state for other countries. The state’s largest export, medical instruments, accounts for about $1.5 billion of the state’s approximately $22 billion in total annual exports.

The health care industry overall is central to Minnesota’s economy. The state is home to the headquarters of the internationally renowned Mayo Clinic health system.

Mississippi exported $3.1 billion worth of petroleum in 2019, more than three times the value of any other product. The state is home to three petroleum refineries, and because of its location along the Gulf Coast Mississippi has access to both offshore oil and Central and South American trade. Mexico and Panama are among the state’s largest export markets.

Medical instruments are the state’s second most valuable export, followed by automobiles, valued at $904 million and $872 million, respectively.

Vehicles, specifically those used for transporting goods, accounted for 14.4% of Missouri’s $13.4 billion in exports in 2019. Ford manufactures its Transit commercial van at a facility in Claycomo, Missouri, and General Motors produces the Chevy Express and GMC Savana vans in a factory in Wentzville. The top three international destinations for products out of Missouri are Canada, Mexico, and China.

In 2018, Montana exported some $1.7 billion worth of goods. The state’s leading export was tobacco cigarettes, which accounted for 13.4% of total export value. While Montana has no major tobacco production facilities of its own, the state’s large cigarette export volume is tied to a processing plant in Shelby that packages cigarettes before they leave the country.

Nebraska produced a record 333 million bushels of soybeans in 2018. According to the Nebraska Soybean Board, the state exports more than 50% of all soybeans harvested in the state. In 2019, Nebraska exported $677.6 million worth of soybeans, the most of any product category in the state.

Nebraska also exports large volumes of other agricultural products. The state exported $592.3 million worth of fresh beef in 2019, and $396.6 million of corn.

Gold accounted for nearly 30% of the $9.0 billion of Nevada’s total export in 2019. Nevada produced an estimated 83% of the nation’s gold in 2018 and accounts for 5.4% of global gold production. Mining is critical to the state’s overall economy, as other top exports from Nevada include copper ore and diamonds. Switzerland is the top destination for the state’s exports, followed by India and Canada.

New Hampshire exported $1.3 billion worth of aircraft and aircraft parts in 2019, the most of any product category in the state. One of the largest aircraft parts manufacturers in the state is GE Aviation, which opened a plant in Hooksett in 1966. Today, the Hooksett facility employs approximately 900 workers and manufactures about 3,000 different engine parts. Other aircraft parts manufacturers in the state include Safran Aerospace Composites in Rochester and BAE Systems in Nashua.

Palladium is a platinum metal that is used in most pollution-control devices in cars and trucks. In recent years, the price of palladium has risen dramatically as more countries have instituted stricter emissions standards and as demand for the metal has increased. In New Jersey, exports of platinum rose by 59.1% from 2018 to $2.4 billion in 2019. New Jersey also exported $1.5 billion worth of scrap precious metal, its second leading export.

The total value of New Mexico’s office machinery parts exports in 2019 was more than double the value the year before. These items, including motherboards and microprocessors, were worth about $1.2 billion and accounted for over a quarter of the state’s total exports in 2019. Intel, company that makes products like these, employs over 1,800 workers at its Rio Rancho location.

New York exported nearly $12.3 billion worth of diamonds in 2019, more than any other product. More than 90% of diamonds that come to the U.S. pass through New York, and most of those diamonds go through Manhattan’s Diamond District, a block of jewelry shops on 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. Often, rough diamonds are brought in and cut and polished and then resold.

Today, diamonds account for 16.2% of all New York exports, though the value of the state’s diamond exports dropped by more than 11% from 2018 to 2019.

North Carolina exported more than $2.8 billion worth of blood in 2019, up more than 50% from the year before. This includes both human and animal blood, used for therapeutic, prophylactic, immunological, and diagnostic purposes.

Each year, tens of thousands of horseshoe crabs are harvested from North Carolina’s waters for their blood, which can be used to detect bacteria and is used to ensure the safety of vaccines and biomedical devices. North Carolina’s Research Triangle — an area between three major research universities — is home to dozens of biopharmaceutical companies.

Since the discovery of the Parshall Oil Field in 2006, North Dakota’s oil extraction industry has flourished, spurring a massive population boom and increased oil production. Texas is the only state that produces more crude oil than North Dakota.

North Dakota exported $2.6 billion worth of crude oil in 2019, accounting for more than one-third of the state’s value of total exports. The vast majority of exports from North Dakota go to neighboring Canada.

Nicknamed the “Birthplace of Aviation,” Ohio has played a major role in the national aircraft industry. Ohio exported $6.0 billion worth of airplanes and airplane parts in 2019. In addition to aircraft commercial manufacturing, Ohio is one of the leading states in aerospace research. The state is home to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the NASA Glenn Research Center, and aerospace research centers within the University of Dayton and the University of Cincinnati — the result of a collaboration between the schools and General Electric.

Aviation and aircraft manufacturing have played a significant role in Oklahoma’s history. Beginning in World War I, the Oklahoma-based Dewey Aeroplane Company built fighting aircraft, known as the Curtiss JN-4D, for the U.S. government. In WWII, plants in Tulsa and outside of Oklahoma City churned out thousands of C-47 Skytrain cargo planes in addition to various bombers and attack aircraft.

Today, the state’s aircraft exports total $635 million. Hundreds of aerospace companies operate in Oklahoma, including Boeing, GE Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce.

Oregon exported $7.7 billion worth of processors in 2019, accounting for nearly one-third of the state’s total value of exports that year. The Portland metro area alone is home to hundreds of high tech companies, including semiconductor makers such as Intel, Tektronix, and Electro Scientific Industries. China, Canada, and Japan are the biggest markets for Oregon exports.

Pennsylvania in 2019 exported $2.6 billion worth of coal, including charcoal briquettes and other solid fuels made from coal. It is the fourth-largest producer of coal of any state and is the only state that produces both anthracite and bituminous coal. The state’s coal production dropped 4.6% from 2018 to 2019 as worldwide coal consumption has declined in recent years. In spite of this decline, Pennsylvania is one of three U.S. states in which coal and its associated products are the leading export product category.

Rhode Island shipped nearly $570 million worth of waste and scrap gold abroad in 2019, accounting for over one-fifth of the state’s exports. Recovered gold and precious metal exports from Rhode Island increased by over 70% from 2018 to 2019. Providence, the place where a relatively inexpensive process for gold plating was invented, was once known as the nation’s jewelry capital. It is still home to a number of gold, platinum, silver, and other precious metal recycling companies.

South Carolina’s leading exports are all related to transportation. Some 29.9% of the total value of the state’s 2019 exports were aircraft and parts, 24.6% were automobiles, and 4.2% were rubber tires. The export value of each of these categories has increased from 2018 to 2019, with the value of aircraft and parts exports growing by over 56%.

South Dakota farms raise over 1 million pigs annually. Although the state raises even more commercial cattle, pork is the state’s largest export. South Dakota farms exported $146.1 million in pork in 2019, more than a 10th of the value of all exports out of the state. The state’s pork exports increased by more than 20% from 2018 to 2019.

Tennessee’s leading export product category is medical instruments. The state exported $3.0 billion worth of medical instruments in 2019, accounting for 9.5% of its total exports. Over 386,000 people work in Tennessee’s health care industry, and the state is the second leading U.S. exporter of medical equipment. The value of medical instruments exports increased by nearly 15% from 2018 to 2019.

The largest oil-producing state, Texas accounts for approximately 40% of total U.S. crude oil production annually. Texas shipped $57.2 billion worth of crude oil in 2019, up 48% from the year before. Oil exports account for 17.4% of the state’s nation-leading $328.9 billion in exports. Petroleum accounts for all three of the three leading export product categories from Texas — crude oil, non-crude petroleum oils, and petroleum gasses.

Utah exported $8.9 billion worth of gold in 2019, far more than any other product. Gold accounts for over half the value of the state’s annual exports while no other export product category accounts for more than 3% of the state’s total export value. The first gold discovery in the state was reported in 1858, and the largest gold-producing mine in the state is the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine near Salt Lake City. Most gold in the state is produced as a byproduct of silver, lead, copper, and zinc mining. The top destinations for Utah’s exports are the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan.

Semiconductors is by far Vermont’s most valuable export product category. Semiconductors accounted for 59% of the state’s $3.0 billion in exports in 2019. Globalfoundries, a company that makes semiconductors for IBM, has a manufacturing plant in Essex Junction, Vermont, that employs an estimated 4,000 workers. The total value of semiconductors that Vermont shipped abroad climbed by 4.6% between 2018 and 2019. The top international destinations for the state’s exports are Canada, its neighbor to the north, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Virginia’s coal exports grew by over 80% from 2018 to 2019, reaching nearly $2 billion and accounting for over one-ninth of the state’s total exports. The value of coal exports was nearly triple the value of the next leading export from Virginia, electronic integrated circuits, which had an export value of $694 million in 2019.

Washington exported a staggering $25.4 billion in aircraft and parts in 2019. The state is home to the operations of over 1,400 aerospace companies, including industry giants like Boeing and SpaceX. The state is the final point of assembly for Boeing’s 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, and a majority of 787 Dreamliner airplanes. Over the last century, over 31,000 aircraft have been assembled in Washington state.

Though the industry remains dominant, international shipments of aircraft and parts have fallen precipitously in recent years, with total export value falling by 39.2% from 2018 to 2019.

With coal a central part of the state’s economy for more than 100 years, West Virginia exports more bituminous coal than any other state. Though the bulk of coal extracted in the state stays in the country, West Virginia exported more than $2.3 billion worth in 2019 alone, accounting for over one-third of the state’s total exports. As many nations are turning to cleaner energy, the demand for coal is declining. West Virginia’s 2019 coal exports were about half of what they were the year before.

Aerospace companies operating in Wisconsin exported over $500 million worth of aircraft and aircraft parts in 2019. Though it is the largest export product category in Wisconsin, aircraft and parts exports make up just 2.4% of the state’s total exports — the lowest share of any state’s leading export. About one-third of all of Wisconsin exports are sold to Canada. The Experimental Aircraft Association hosts its annual Airventure event in Oshkosh, attracting 600,000 people annually and briefly making the Oshkosh airport the busiest in the world.

Carbonates, which includes sodium carbonate, are by far Wyoming’s most valuable export. Accounting for nearly three-quarters of the state’s total export value, carbonates represent a bigger share of the state’s exports than any single product in any state.

Trona, a compound of sodium carbonate, can be processed and turned into baking soda. Wyoming has the world’s largest known reserve of the mineral, at around 127 billion tons, about a third of which can be accessed and mined. Wyoming mines employ over 2,000 people.