Henan is an agricultural province, leading the provinces of China in wheat and sesame production, and is third place overall in terms of total grain output. Cotton, rice, and maize are also important crops in Henan.

The Henan economy has been steadily growing in recent years in the wake of the rise of Central China and the relocation of industries from the eastern provinces. Total grain output exceeded 100 billion catty for two consecutive years, set record highs for four consecutive years, and ranked first in the country for eight consecutive years. The food industry has become one of Henan's pillar industries. It is an indisputable fact that Henan has evolved from the nation's "granary" into the nation's "kitchen". Henan has not only emerged from a major agricultural province in the traditional sense but has upgraded its industry, agriculture, forestry and high-tech industries, having done a marvellous job in expanding the scale of operation, achieving brand integration, extending the industry chains and expanding the market.

Xuchang city is well-deserved wig of all, each year the city of Xuchang wig manufacturing industry to create 1.4 billion USD of profits, accounting for the world's wig for 40% of total sales. The region formed a sophisticated additive manufacturing and processing technology.

For Henan, which lies in the heart of the Chinese mainland, high-tech industries like electronics and information technology have always been "short slabs" in the province's economic development and have a direct impact on the rationality of its industrial structure and distribution and the pace of its industrial upgrade. However, the situation took a turn for the better in 2007, with the electronics and information technology industry grossing Rmb51.5 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 30%, 12 percentage points higher than the national average. The software industry grossed Rmb11.3 billion, up 50.7%, nearly 30 percentage points higher than the national average. The industry's value added increased by more than 30% to Rmb13.5 billion.

The official presentation of name plaques for the Luoyang, Nanyang and Puyang electronics and information technology industry bases in July 2007 marked an important breakthrough in the building of Henan into an electronics and information technology industry base, providing a broader scope for the application of electronics and information technology. The Luoyang Silicon Electronics Industry Base has developed into an industry base for optoelectronic connectors, photovoltaic cells and other silicon-based products. The Nanyang Optoelectronics Industry Base specialises in optoelectronic display products and has a leading edge in the development and production of LCD, LCOS, DLP optical engines, MDTV and other modern optoelectronic display products. The Henan Zhong Optical Group here is the only Chinese enterprise capable of producing optical engines on its own. The Puyang Electronic Lighting Source Industry Base concentrates on developing electronic lighting source and has become an important electronic lighting source production base.

Henan is rich in mineral resources. Its reserves of molybdenum, marble trona, asbestos, aluminum, natural gas, cesium, bauxite, coal, perlite and refractory clay are among the largest in China. The Zhongyuan Oilfield is one of the largest oilfields and Pingdingshan Coal Mine is one of the four largest coal mines in China. Currently, half of the aluminum oxide output in China comes from Henan.

Meanwhile with the reserves of 48 types of minerals ranking above 10th in the country, the reserves of natural alkali, blue asbestos and perlite ranking the first and the reserves of bauxite and limestone ranking the second in the country.