JEFFERSON CITY -- Missouri's farmers have become a vital part of an effort to enhance the economy through increased export sales, says a just-released report by the state Department of Agriculture.

Farmers in the state now account for $1 of every $5 in goods exported to some 169 countries each year, supplying a variety of crops and livestock that range from cotton to tobacco, from poultry to rice.

Although last year's farm export total was diminished from the previous four-year average because of the 1993 floods, agricultural exports in 1994 still managed to reach $984.8 million, a drop from the previous year's record-high $1,105.3 billion. The five-year export total from 1990 through 1994 was $4,924.1 billion.

This year's export total, which will include bumper crops in 1994 for several commodities including cotton, should put the total above the $1 billion mark.

Nationally, Missouri ranks 17th in total-dollar farm-export sales, although it ranks fifth in soybean sales, sixth in rice exports and 10th in dairy products.

As might be expected, Missouri-grown soybeans provided the highest export sales, with $358.3 million realized last year, lowered by floodwaters from the previous year's $450.8 million in foreign sales of the commodity.

Ranking second in export sales from Missouri's farms are feed grains and grain products, which last year added $191.1 million to the economy. The previous year these crops totaled $254.8 million in sales abroad.

Wheat and wheat products ranked third in export dollar volume, reaching $74.1 million, down drastically because of the 1993 floods from the previous year's total of $122.8 million.

Cotton was the state's fourth-largest export commodity, bringing in $53.9 million in sales abroad last year. Because the state's cotton-producing region in the Bootheel was not affected by 1993's floods, the 1994 export total was the second highest in the five-year period.

It was poultry and poultry products, however, that saw the greatest export gain last year, with $48.1 million. Experts with the state agriculture department say the rise in commercial poultry operations, including both chickens and turkeys, accounts for the steady increase in export sales for this category. Poultry and poultry products rank just behind cotton in dollar value.

The sixth category, live animals and meat, produced $41.3 million in state sales overseas.

Other Missouri crops exports, and the total sales: rice, $242.2 million; feed and fodders, $23.4 million; dairy products, $17.3 million; seeds, excluding cottonseed, $16.1 million; hides and skins, $8.2 million; animal fats, oils and greases, $5.2 million; cottonseed and cottonseed products, $2.8 million; tobacco, $2.7 million; and miscellaneous commodities, $30.9 million.

Japan was the leading purchaser of U.S. agricultural products last year, responsible for $9.2 billion added to the nation's economy. This figure was 6.52 percent ahead of the previous year's total. The second highest importer of American farm products was Canada, which imported $5.49 billion last year.

Other principal buyers of agricultural commodities were, in declining rank, these importing countries: Mexico, Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Netherlands, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, Germany, United Kingdom and Egypt.

The leading purchaser of each of the nation's principal farm exports was: soybeans, Japan; feed grains and grain products, Japan; wheat and wheat products, Japan; cotton and linters, People's Republic of China; poultry, Russian federation; and live animals and meat, excluding poultry, Canada.

American farmers' best customer for domestic rice is Japan. Last year's sales of U.S.-produced rice to Japan reached $238 million, up 1.603 percent form the previous year. The increase in American rice purchases by Japan is traced to a major crop failure in the Orient in 1993, the same year Missouri farmers were experiencing an identical fate.