A small gathering of staff from the Chamber of Commerce learned about the value of Alaska’s exports during lunch at the Harbor Room of the Kodiak Inn. Greg Wolf is the executive Director for World Trade Center Alaska and said last year Alaska earned USD 5.2 billion from worldwide exports. He said the dollar amount ranks Alaska 40th among the 50 states for exports, but when you factor in Alaska’s small population Alaska’s export value is bumped up to 4th in the nation. ?
Wolf said exports provide roughly 25,000 direct and indirect jobs, with the leading export product being seafood, which makes up 47 percent of all exports. While that may come as no surprise to most, the second largest export is minerals at 35 percent, which is more than five times the export value of energy at six percent. Precious metals were five percent in exports followed by forest products at two percent and fish meal worth one percent. ?
