Commodity exports in Connecticut totaled $14.4 billion last year, down nearly 5.5 percent from 2015”™s $15.2 billion, according to the International Trade Administration.
The decline was larger than that experienced by the nation at large, where commodity exports totaled $1.45 trillion in 2016, a 3.3 percent decrease from the previous year”™s $1.5 trillion.
The Connecticut data does not include state-level service exports, which encompasses insurance and financial services, according to Laura Jaworski, an analyst with the Department of Economic and Community Development, in the Connecticut Economic Digest.
The state”™s data indicates that 5,717 companies exported from Connecticut in 2014. Eighty-nine percent of those companies were small and medium-size, with fewer than 500 employees, and accounted for 23 percent of Connecticut commodity exports.
Connecticut”™s ranking among the states held steady at 27th in 2016. In New England, only Massachusetts”™ exports value ranked higher than Connecticut”™s, as has been the case since 2005, Jaworski noted. As a regional trading block, New England”™s commodity exports totaled more than $52.47 billion in 2016, a 0.16 percent decrease from 2015.
Connecticut”™s top five export commodities were aircraft, spacecraft and parts thereof; industrial machinery, including computers; electric machinery, sound equipment, TV equipment, and parts; optic, photo, medical or surgical instruments; and special classification provisions. The state”™s top five commodity export destinations were France, Germany, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico.
