Economic Importance of Minnesota's Poultry Industry

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• Minnesota is the nation's second largest turkey producer and seventh largest egg producer.
• Poultry Sales accounted for about 7% of Minnesotas 1996 farm output, growing from 4.6% in 1980.

Figure 1. Poultry Industry Employment, Minnesota 1996

Employment Impacts

• Poultry producers and processors employ more than 10,300 persons.
• If you picture the poultry industry as one business, it would be the 13th largest employer in Minnesota.
• Support industries (grain producers, grain elevators, truckers, etc.) employ an additional 16,000 persons.
• Suppliers include those firms that sell services to poultry growers or processors. It also includes the purchases by suppliers from other firms. For example, truckers hauling grain to poultry farms are counted.
• The major suppliers are agricultural services, soybeans, business services, retail trade, corn, wholesale trade, feed processing, and transportation.
• In total there are 10,634 jobs in the supply industries that depend on poultry production and processing in Minnesota.
• The retail spending of the 10,308 people employed in production and processing and the 10,634 employed in support industries provide jobs for another 5,402 people.
• In total, the poultry industry supports 26,300 jobs in Minnesota.

Figure 2. Jobs Depending on Poultry Industry, Minnesota 1996

Figure 3. Income Generated by Poultry Industry, Minnesota 1996

• Poultry producers and processors earned incomes of $317 million in 1996.
• Minnesota producers earned incomes of $87 million from supplying corn and soybeans to poultry producers.
• Other spin-off industries earned over $500 million in incomes due to the poultry industry in 1996.

• If you picture the poultry and processing industries as one business, it would be the 13th largest employer in Minnesota.
• If all three of the poultry-dependent industries (producers, processors, and support sectors) are pictured as a single company, it would be the 5th largest firm in Minnesota, larger than both 3M and Northwest Airlines.

Since the airlines and manufacturing pay higher wages, the income earned in 3M and NWA is higher than for the total poultry industry but not a lot more.

While this comparison gives a handy picture of the size of the poultry industry, it is comparing apples with oranges (or turkeys with Post-Its®). We are comparing individual companies without their support industries to the entire poultry industry.

Is the poultry industry the most important economic sector in Minnesota? Of course not. But it probably is much bigger than you had imagined.

Figure 4. Minnesota Poultry Jobs & Income vs. Large Firms, 1996

Each of these conditions was examined carefully to see if overestimates would occur in this study. Given the adjustments outlined in the full report Economic Importance of Minnesota's Poultry Industry by George W. Morse, University of Minnesota Extension Service, input-output appears to be a reasonable approach for this study.

This publication is a summary of a larger bulletin, also titled Economic Importance of Minnesota's Poultry Industry, item MI-7020.

Produced by Communication and Educational Technology Services, University of Minnesota Extension.

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