Agricultural Business Feeds Minnesota's Economic Bottom Line

Agriculture and food production is a major staple of the Minnesota economy

Minnesota’s early economy was built on fur trading and farming, with flour being an early commodity. While the state has grown into a tech and research hub, the business of producing goods from fertile Minnesota land continues to help anchor the state’s booming economy.

Economic Mainstay

Minnesota’s agricultural production and processing industry entails $57.5 billion in sales more than 147,000 jobs overall. The food production industry has more than 46,000 workers, making it the largest manufacturing segment in the state by total workers. Minnesota companies also sent nearly $6.2 billion in food exports in 2015, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Cargill, the largest privately held company in the U.S., calls Minnesota home.

“Our location in Minnesota means that we are closely connected to the Cargill Product groups that supply a broad portfolio of ingredients to North American food service and consumer package goods customers,” says John Sweeney, director of research and development shared capabilities for Cargill North America. Cargill has invested in projects like the Food Innovation Center in Minneapolis, which collaborates with customers by improving nutritional profiles of products, solving complex formulation challenges, mitigating price risk and optimizing costs.

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