Georgia’s exports and imports soared last year

Cars, airplanes — and their associated parts — and industrial machines have become big business for the state historically renowned for poultry and wood pulp exports. Kia Motors in West Point, for example, put Georgia on the world’s auto-making map and auto parts suppliers across North Georgia account for billions of dollars of overseas sales.

Vehicles are Canada’s No. 1 import from Georgia. Aircraft (and parts) topped China’s 2012 shopping list of Georgia products, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“I am absolutely thrilled by the diversity of destinations,” said Kathe Falls, trade director for the state’s economic development agency. “Last year, 35 percent of what we sold went to Asia, 29 percent to North America and 22 percent to Europe. It’s much healthier for our economy when we don’t have all our eggs in one basket.”

Cars figure prominently, too, in the surge of Georgia imports — a record $72 billion last year. Germany, South Korea, Mexico and Japan — all major car builders — sent thousands of vehicles through the ports of Brunswick and Savannah.

Georgia’s penchant for foreign-made goods, though, fuels a huge trade imbalance, particularly with China, which shipped $22 billion in mostly consumer goods to Georgia last year.

Georgia leads the the nation in the exportation of cotton, peanuts, kaolin, carpet, poultry, paper and paperboard and the “edible offal of poultry,” the state reported.