Summary: The latest agricultural economic impact numbers coming from NC State University shows the state’s ag industry contributes over $100 billion to the economy.
- We recently received updated Ag economic impact numbers from Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman at N.C. State University and they were about what I expected them to be, based on the time period they are calculated from.
- The latest economic impact numbers are based off 2023 USDA statistics. If you will recall, that year farmers were facing high input costs of fertilizers and other inputs in part due to the conflict in Ukraine.
- While the total number did not grow this year, the good news is that the economic impact of North Carolina’s agriculture and agribusiness remains over $100 billion, $102 billion to be exact.
- NC State Ag Economist Dr. Mike Walden, who retired several years ago, provided this information for years. This year the baton was handed off to Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman, who prepared this year’s reports.
- The last couple years coming back from the pandemic, natural disasters, droughts and other obstacles, it is not surprising that our growth is flat.
- Diving into the numbers more, you will see that ag represents 13% of North Carolina’s total economic output, or 1 in every 8 dollars.
- That might be hard to imagine if you live in one of our urban cities, but when you drive across the state, you see plenty of examples of agriculture and agribusinesses across the landscape.
- This industry accounts for 965,000 jobs statewide, which represents 19% of the workforce or 1 in every 5 jobs.
- Sometimes people only think about farmers when it comes to agriculture, but we have a big agribusiness sector in North Carolina with processing and food manufacturing, plus support industries.
- To further break down the economic impact of ag industries:
- Food and related products: $58.9 billion
- Tobacco and related products: $12.7 billion.
- Forestry and related products: $14.6 billion
- Fiber and related industries: $3 billion
- Green industry: $4.2 billion.
- I am proud that North Carolina farmers and agribusiness owners not only feed us, but they also power our state’s economy. Food starts somewhere and that is on a farm.
- Yes, it eventually makes its way to a grocery store or farm stand or restaurant, but food doesn’t START at those places even though that’s where most people “get” their food from.
- That is a very important distinction.
- And, when you really think about that, you realize we ALL need our farms and farmers to be successful because they are the ones growing the food that we all enjoy.
- Without farmers, we’d have a lot of empty grocery store shelves. We need to celebrate our farmers and agribusinesses every day.