USDA Rural Development releases biobased industry report

In Washington, USDA Rural Development (RD) recently released “An Economic Impact Analysis of the U.S. Biobased Products Industry: 2023 Update,” which demonstrates how the biobased products industry grew at the national level despite the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Topline report findings include:

Biobased products, a segment of the bioeconomy, contributed $489 billion to the U.S. economy in 2021, up from $464 billion in 2020. This is an increase of $25 billion or a 5.1% increase.

Employment decreased slightly from 4.05 million jobs in 2020 to 3.94 million jobs in 2021, with each job supporting an estimated 1.4 more jobs in other sectors of the U.S. economy. This decrease is likely due in part to challenges in the labor market upon restarting the economy in 2021.

The biobased products sector and the jobs it supports are shown to impact every state in the nation and are not confined to states where agriculture is the main industry.

The use of biobased products reduces the consumption of petroleum equivalents. In 2017, oil displacement was estimated to be as much as 9.4 million barrels of oil equivalents. In 2021, the displacement grew to 10.7 million barrels of oil equivalents using an 80% petroleum reduction value for biobased products.