Utah exports: an overview of products and destinations.

• Author: Harris, Tamara L.

UTAH EXPORTS An Overview of Products and Destinations

Currently, Utah ranks 36th among the 50 states in population and in the dollar value of its products exported to foreign countries. But the total value of Utah exports is growing rapidly, from $843 million in 1988, to $1.125 billion in 1989, to $1.8 billion in 1990. These increases are 33 percent and 60 percent respectively. In certain industries, demand for Utah-produced goods is increasing due to the state's reputation in those industries and the quality of its wares.

The Utah Factor

"Foreign countries are generally interested in products from the Unites States rather than from a particular state," says Lark Maximo of the state's International Business Development Office. "Utah, however, is known internationally in the computer industry." The Provo area is the nation's third-largest producer of computers and related equipment.

Utah also has a good reputation among U.S. employers, according to Maximo, and this has a positive effect on the state's export capacity. "Our work force is known for being educated and hardworking. Often the Utah plant of a particular company is more productive than other plants," says Maximo.

Other factors, however, restrain Utah's export capacity. Officials says this is because the state is landlocked and traditionally has concentrated on industries such as mining, whose products are more difficult to send overseas than, for example, clothing or Walkman-type stereos.

For comparison purposes, California tops the export list and South Dakota ranks last. Some reasons behind these rankings are that California has the largest population, while South Dakota's ranks 45th. California is a coastal state, while South Dakota is thousands of miles from either costs. In 1989, the latest year for which the U.S. Department of Commerce has statistics, California exported over $43 billion worth of goods, and South Dakota exported $131 million. Among the 11 western states, Utah's population and exports rank sixth.

Utah's Major Exports

The federal government classifies commodities into broad categories known as Standard Industry Codes (SICs). This facilitates gathering and analyzing statistics about sales, exports, growth, and industry trends.

The largest SIC category of Utah exports is electric and electronic machinery which includes computers and related equipment (see table 2). A case in point is the computer software manufactured by WordPerfect. According to David Pearson...