Louisiana 8th in U.S. for export increases in 2012

New state-by-state export data from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows Louisiana posted the eighth-highest increase in exports last year, by percentage, and was among 35 states to increase its exports in 2012. Louisiana, which notched a 15% increase in exports last year, was also among just 11 states to post double-digit export annual growth. Total exports from Louisiana last year were $62.3 billion. Baton Rouge accounted for $4.9 billion of that and was the second-leading city for exports in the state, behind the New Orleans metro area. The state’s largest merchandise exports last year were petroleum and coal products, which accounted for $23.4 billion of Louisiana’s total, followed by agricultural products ($19.5 billion), chemicals ($8.3 billion), food and kindred products ($5.1 billion), and machinery ($1.8 billion). U.S. exports hit a record-high last year, the department says, with $2.2 trillion of goods and services sent out of the country. Nationally, jobs supported by exports increased to 9.8 million in 2012, up 1.3 million since 2009, according to the report. “This puts us ahead of schedule to meet the President’s goal of adding two million export-supported jobs by the end of 2014,” a department release says. The Commerce Department has a searchable database of all export figures from the new report, for the country as a whole as well as for individual states, that you can find here. A summary of Louisiana exporting last year can be found here.