The North Dakota Department of Commerce is the lead agency charged with growing our state and improving the quality of life for our people. Our four divisions – Tourism, Economic Development, Workforce Development and Community Services – and our relocation effort – ExperienceND – currently provide nearly 50 programs and services to support business, workforce and community development in partnership with local leaders.

At Commerce, we believe our mission is to lead North Dakota’s efforts to attract, retain and expand wealth. We target five industries to broaden the state’s economic base, create new wealth and generate quality jobs for our people.

Target Industries

• Value-Added Agriculture
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Technology-Based Business
• Tourism
• Energy

Commerce also focuses on developing select areas within these targeted industries, such as:

• Aerospace (Unmanned Systems)
• Biotechnology
• Bioenergy
• AgriTourism

Agriculture is the dominant sector of North Dakota’s economy. Our 31,000 farmers and ranchers lead the nation in the production of more than a dozen important commodities, among them wheat, durum, flax, canola, sunflowers, pulse crops and more.

Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and the Department staff are committed to promoting a healthy economic, environmental and social climate for agriculture and the rural community through leadership, advocacy, education, regulation and other services. We believe that a strong agricultural economy is vital to the long-term well-being of North Dakota, our country and the world.

The U.S. Commercial Service is the government partner that provides U.S. companies with worldwide direct market access. A division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, we have a network of trade specialists in every U.S. state and over 165 offices in 82 countries throughout the world, all working on behalf of U.S. companies who want to sell their products and services internationally.

The North Dakota office, located in Fargo, covers all of North Dakota and 9 counties (Becker, Clay, Kittson, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau) in Northwestern Minnesota. This office actively assists over 120 different North Dakota or Northwestern Minnesota companies resolve around 300 different trade matters a year. The U.S. Commercial Service has been directly involved with hundreds of export transactions since 2005, representing millions of dollars in new sales for North Dakota and Northwestern Minnesota. The types of companies using the services vary from agricultural machinery manufacturers, to aviation companies, to higher educational institutions.