The economic impact of North Carolina’s Agriculture and Agribusiness Agribusiness is a portmanteau of the words agriculture and business. It includes businesses that are connected to farming by their involvement in the production, processing, and distribution activities required to send agricultural goods to market. For our purposes, it includes the food, fiber, and forestry industries industry jumped to $111.1 billion, posting a second straight year of strong growth at nearly $8 billion Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler announced today. 

“With last year’s increase of $10 billion, that represents over $18 billion in growth since 2022 when we were coming out of a pandemic and some challenging economic times,” Troxler said at the opening of the 2024 Got to Be NC Festival. “It’s exciting to see numbers like these because it shows the strength and resiliency of agriculture and agribusiness in this state.”

N.C. State University Economist Dr. Mike Walden calculates the economic impact numbers annually using data from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and other multipliers.

“If you remember one thing I say today, I hope you will remember that Agriculture IS our food supply,” Troxler said. “It is an important industry because it feeds us. We don’t ever want to have to rely on another country to feed us. We want to be self-reliant when it comes to our food supply and that’s why it is important that we support our farmers.” 

Troxler noted that the economic figures were supported by the state’s top production rankings nationally, including being No. 1 in the production of sweet potatoes, tobacco, poultry and eggs, second in Christmas trees, turkeys and trout, third in hogs and cucumbers, fourth in peanuts and broilers, and fifth in cotton. 

“This growth is also a result of our continued investment in agricultural research, our continued efforts to expand and attract new food manufacturing and to create more value-added opportunities, and the continued support of our legislators,” Troxler said.