SAINT PAUL: Exporters in Minnesota sold $5 billion worth of agricultural, mining and manufactured products in the third quarter according to data released this week by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Education. That number is a decline of 10 percent from the same period one year ago.
The majority of states, 42, saw exports fall during the third quarter, with overall U.S. exports dropping 8 percent from a year ago. For the calendar year, both Minnesota and U.S. exports have declined by 6 percent.
“Despite a difficult quarter, Minnesota exporters saw pockets of growth in some parts of the world,” DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben said in a release. “State exports climbed 4 percent in the European Union, and sales to the Middle East and Central and South America were up 7 percent from a year ago.”
The largest regional declines were in Asia, where sales dropped 10 percent behind weaker demand in the Philippines, Japan and Singapore, and North America, where sales fell by 19 percent.
Minnesota’s largest national market, Canada, was a major factor in the decline of North American sales, the data shows, with exports down 27 percent to $1.14 billion. Sales to Mexico, the state’s second-largest market, fell just 1 percent to $635 million.
The state’s remaining 8 top national export markets were China, which remained steady at $554 million; Japan, $259 million, down 15 percent; Germany, $217 million, up 29 percent; Belgium, $175 million, a drop of 7 percent; South Korea, $163 million, down 4 percent; United Kingdom, $136 million, a gain of 8 percent; Australia, $122 million, up 12 percent; and Singapore, $116 million, down 19 percent. Optical and medical products were the top export with sales of $892 million, a decline of 5 percent.
Other top 10 export products were machinery, at $867 million, which saw no change; electrical machinery, $619 million, a drop of 13 percent; vehicles, $487 million, down 13 percent; plastic, $281 million, down 11 percent; food byproducts, $140 million, down 14 percent; miscellaneous grain, seed and fruit saw sales of $100 million, up 35 percent; iron and steel, $95 million, up 5 percent; aircraft and spacecraft had $89 million in sales, down 34 percent; and pharmaceuticals, $84 million, up 67 percent.
