Regional Economic Impacts of Florida's Agricultural and Natural Resource Industries

The state of Florida has large industries producing fruits and vegetables, sugar, livestock, dairy and meat products, seafood, ornamental plants, forest products, phosphate rock, and an array of associated industries that provide supporting inputs and services, and conduct processing and manufacturing. There are distinct differences in the regional distribution of Florida's agricultural and natural resource industries. Economic characteristics and impacts were evaluated for the state of Florida and for eight separate regions of Florida. Each region is comprised of a core metropolitan area and a number of surrounding counties, as defined by the US Commerce Department, Bureau of Economic Analysis, based on employee commuting patterns and other factors. The Implan input-output analysis and social accounting software and associated databases for Florida counties were used to create economic models for each region and to estimate the total economic impacts of over 100 industry sectors in agriculture, natural resource and associated value-added manufacturing. Statewide economic impacts in the year 2000, expressed in year 2002 dollars, included industry output (sales) of $35.2 billion (Bn), with sales to markets outside the state (export shipments) of $19.4Bn, personal and business net income (value added) of $14.8Bn, and employment of 338,253 persons. The value added represented 3.1 percent of Florida's gross regional product. When the multiplier effects of export final demand on interindustry purchases and employee household spending are considered, the total economic impacts were estimated at $62.0Bn in output, $31.0Bn in value added, and 648,550 jobs. Regionally, total value added impacts of the agriculture and natural resource industries were greatest in the Orlando area ($4.31Bn), followed by Miami-Ft. Lauderdale ($3.61Bn), Tampa-St. Petersburg- Clearwater ($2.20Bn), Jacksonville ($1.47Bn), Sarasota-Bradenton ($1.10Bn), Tallahassee ($782 million), Ft. Myers-Cape Coral ($701 million), and Pensacola ($597 million). The largest industry groups in terms of total value added impacts were fruits and vegetables ($2.9Bn), environmental horticulture ($2.8Bn), forest products ($2.0Bn), agricultural inputs and services ($1.4Bn), and other food and fiber manufacturing ($1.7Bn), with lesser impacts for dairy products, field crops, livestock and meat products, mining, seafood products, sugar and confectionary products, and tobacco products. The total value added impact was $1,929 per capita, and the total employment impact was 40 jobs per 1000 residents. Economic impacts per capita and share of gross regional product indicated that the agriculture and natural resource industries were relatively more important in the Sarasota-Bradenton, Orlando, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee regions than for the state as a whole.