What Is a Primary Economic Activity?

Economic activity produces consumer goods or provides services. Examples of primary economic activities include these examples:

• Commercial fishing
• Farming - growing crops (arable farming) or animal husbandry (pastoral farming)
• Quarrying - extracting sand or gravel
• Mining of minerals, oil and gas extraction, and production
• Harvesting materials that grow in the wild, such as peat moss
• Forestry and logging
• Irrigation
• Fish farming or aquaculture

Other types of economic activities are classified as secondary, tertiary or quaternary.