Four Arkansas Companies Honored For Global Trade Success
by May 22, 2013 12:05 pm 78 views
Gov. Mike Beebe (D) presented four Arkansas companies with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Global Trade during an awards luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion on Wednesday. The award honors companies for their leadership in exporting goods and services throughout the world.
This year’s winners are:
- Agribusiness – Tyson Foods (Springdale)
- Small Manufacturer Exporter – Conway Machine Inc. (Conway)
- Medium Manufacturer Exporter – Alliance Rubber Company (Hot Springs)
- Large Manufacturer Exporter – Welspun Tubular (Little Rock)
This is the fourth year for the program which is co-sponsored by the Arkansas District Export Council, Arkansas Economic Development Commission, U. S. Commercial Service, and the Arkansas World Trade Center.
Judging criteria was based on factors such as most recent percentage of export sales to total sales, growth of export sales over the past three years, the company’s goals and commitments internationally and the number of jobs saved or created due to the company’s export performance
According to Census Bureau data, Arkansas’ export shipments of merchandise in 2012 totaled $7.6 billion – an increase of 36 percent over 2011 totals.
Arkansas’ largest markets in 2012 were Canada ($1.7 billion), Mexico ($845 million), China ($720 million) and France ($365 million). More than 14% of Arkansas manufacturing workers depend on exports for their jobs.
1,627 Arkansas companies exported goods or services in 2012. Roughly 78% of these companies were small- to medium-sized.