State exports post year-over-year gains

California’s export trade reached $13.7 billion in February, up 2.6 percent from exactly one year earlier, according to data released April 8.

At the same time, exports of manufactured goods rose 1.3 percent year-over-year, while the state’s overseas shipments of agricultural products and raw materials increased 8.6 percent compared with February 2023, Beacon Economics in Los Angeles reported.

“Gains in exports of computer and electronic products and agricultural produce overcame a sharp 48.1 percent fall-off in electric vehicle exports,” said Jock O’Connell, Beacon’s international trade advisor, in a statement. “That [led to] February’s modest overall increase in California’s merchandise export trade.”

California was the landing spot for 14.3 percent of all U.S. merchandise imports in February, with a value of $34.617 billion. That was an 8.1 percent increase compared with the $32 billion imports recorded in February 2023, Beacon reported.

Beacon’s analysis was based on data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division.