Exports by Product Sector

Technological Products and Travel Import Majority of Dollars into the Region

Why is it important?

Exports generate wealth and jobs for a region and indicate its competitiveness in the global economy. By serving a growing global demand for local goods and services, a region can increase jobs and import more dollars. The travel industry and government jobs serve a similar economic function because they also import dollars. One way to diversify the economy is to develop a wider variety of exports.

How are we doing?

Technological products and travel are equally important to the Sierra Nevada economy, each accounting for nearly a third of the dollars imported into the region. Technological products dominate the economy in North Central, accounting for 43 percent of imported dollars. Travel, overwhelmingly, imports the most dollars in the East, responsible for three-fourths of all imported dollars. State and federal government dollars account for 16 percent of the dollars that flow into the Sierra Nevada and are distributed relatively evenly, except in the North where they represent one out of every four imported dollars. Forestry and wood products account for roughly 10 percent of dollars imported into the Sierra Nevada, and still predominate in the North where they account for 41 percent of imported dollars.

The other three sectors – agriculture, mining, other forms of manufacturing – each represent about five percent of the dollars imported into the Sierra. Only agriculture in South Central has regional significance.

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