page_title: Economy of Spokane, Washington
section_title: Agriculture
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Spokane, Washington / Prominent industries / Agriculture
caption_attribution_description: English: Wheat harvest on the Palouse, Idaho, USA
context_page_description: The economy of the Spokane Metropolitan Area plays a vital role as the hub for the commercial, manufacturing, and transportation center as well as the medical, shopping, and entertainment hub of the 80,000 square miles Inland Northwest region. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Spokane metropolitan area has a workforce of about 287,000 people and an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent as of February 2020; the largest sectors for non–farm employment are education and health services, trade, transportation, and utilities, and government. The Coeur d'Alene metropolitan area has a workforce of 80,000 people and an unemployment rate of 6.8% as of June 2020; the largest sectors for non-farm employment are trade, transportation, and utilities, government, and education and health services as well as leisure and hospitality.In 2017, the Spokane–Spokane Valley metropolitan area had a gross metropolitan product of $25.5 billion while the Coeur d'Alene metropolitan area was $5.93 billion.
context_section_description: According to Greater Spokane Inc., Spokane County has over 2,500 farms (second highest in the state), and the processing of food in Spokane generates $566 million dollars in revenue. Agriculture activities generate $117 million in annual economic impact and support 1,576 jobs on over 7,000 farms and ranches which produced $1 billion dollars of product which generated an estimated $5 billion dollar impact in Spokane and the surrounding counties. As of February 2020, the agricultural sector employed about 32,000 people.
  The surrounding counties, especially to the south, is a productive agricultural region known as the Palouse. The Inland Northwest region has also long been associated with farming, especially wheat production where it is one of the largest wheat producing regions in the United States. Agricultural potential and productivity depends greatly on a region's soil qualities which in turn is dependent on the climate and amount and timing of rainfall events. The Inland Empire, with its cool, snowy and rainy winters, rainy spring, and hot and dry summers lends itself to a wide variety of farming.  The four major producing counties on the Palouse are neighboring Whitman, Lincoln, and Adams counties and nearby Grant county. Whitman County ranks as the highest producing wheat county in the nation and ranks second in barley. Today, a large share of the wheat produced in the region is shipped to Far East markets. Agriculture in Spokane is very important to the overall economy, and according to Wayne Rasmussen, continued future success of this sector will depend on efficient farm management and support of agricultural research and development at regional universities as well as support to local farmers with information for sound decision making regarding production, financing, and marketing. Washington State University operates a Spokane County Extension that has the goal to “promote quality of life and advance economic well-being through fostering inquiry, learning and the application of research.” The Spokane Ag Expo is hosted at the Spokane Convention Center annually and is one of the largest trade show of its type in the nation.
  There is also a viticulture and craft brewing scene featuring a number of award-winning wineries and microbreweries in the Spokane area. With over 800 wineries, Washington state ranks second in wine production in the country. With three quarters of the hops in the United States being produced in the Yakima Valley and new varieties being bred on an ongoing basis, there is a growing craft brewery and microbrewery scene in the Pacific Northwest. The largest brewery in Spokane is the No-Li Brewhouse.
caption: Wheat farming on the Palouse, Idaho
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