Lying in a farm area, Kaolack is a major peanut marketing and exporting center and has a large peanut oil factory. Brewing, leather tanning, cotton ginning, and fish processing are also important industries.
Salt is produced from nearby salines.
The city is on the railroad from Dakar to the Niger River in Mali. Kaolack is the center of the Sufi Muslim Tijaniyya brotherhood, whose mosque is on the city's outskirts.