What the Federal Government Actually Buys Under NAICS 423990 (From USAspending Data)

NAICS 423990 is "Other Miscellaneous Durable Goods Merchant Wholesalers." It is a catch-all, and Lunula Supply's primary code. We wanted to know what the federal government buys under it, so we asked the source: the USAspending.gov API. This post is the result, with the queries, the method and the limits spelled out.

The short version for manufacturers: under this one code, federal contract obligations run roughly $12 million to $14 million a year, with Defense and Justice accounting for about 95 percent of FY2025. That is small, and it tells you something. The code is not a map of the demand for your product. It is a map of what contracting officers labeled this way.

How we got the numbers

Query date: October 7, 2026. Source: the public USAspending.gov API. USAspending.gov is the official source for federal spending data, drawn from agency and Treasury reporting.

Filters on every query:

• NAICS code: 423990 (the code on the award)
• Award type codes A, B, C and D (definitive contracts, purchase orders, delivery orders and BPA calls)
• Fiscal years run October 1 to September 30. FY2025 is October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025.

Endpoints used:

• spending_over_time grouped by fiscal year, for totals from FY2021 to FY2025
• spending_by_category/awarding_agency for the agency breakdown
• spending_by_category/psc for product and service codes
• spending_over_time again with the added filter recipient_type_names: ["small_business"], for the small business share

The figures are obligations, meaning the dollars agencies committed on awards in the period, and they are net of deobligations. They are not payments and not sales. Agencies keep reporting after a fiscal year ends, and USAspending revises its data, so a number you pull later may not match ours. We have rounded sensibly and do not name any individual recipient.

Total obligations by fiscal year

Flat to gently down. For FY2025 the API counts 205 contract awards in the filtered set. The most recent year may still move as agencies finish reporting, so we would not read the decline as a trend on this evidence alone.

Which agencies bought in FY2025

Two agencies are nearly the whole picture. Defense is expected. Justice is the interesting one, and the product codes below hint at why: correctional and law enforcement facilities buy a lot of durable equipment.

What the product codes say

The PSC (product and service code) tells you what was bought. These are the top six for FY2025, with their shares of the total:

The next four were office devices and accessories, perpetual license business software, office supplies and fire fighting equipment. The top ten together made up about 90 percent of the total.

Three things stand out:

1. It is practical, physical goods. Containers, handling equipment, spill response, lab supplies. This is "durable goods" in a literal sense.
2. Nothing is the bulk of it. The largest single code is a quarter of the total. A manufacturer in one of these categories is looking at a spread of small awards, not a few large ones.
3. Business software shows up. That is a reminder that the NAICS code on an award is the contracting officer's choice, and it does not always match the product.

How much went to small businesses

We ran the same query a second time with the added filter for small business recipients. The share of total obligations:

The method: small business obligations divided by total obligations, same code and same award types. The recipient type filter reflects how the recipient is classified in USAspending, which comes from the vendor's SAM.gov registration, so it is a classification and not an audit. The share is roughly a third in the last three years, and below a quarter in the first two. Small businesses do not win most of the dollars under this code, but they win a meaningful part, and it rose.

What manufacturers can take from this

The code is a poor proxy for your market. Most federal purchases of a manufacturer's product are coded to something else, such as the NAICS for the product itself or for the type of wholesaler. If you size the federal opportunity by searching one code, you will undercount. Search by PSC and by keyword too.

Agency concentration is real, and it points somewhere. If your product fits the Defense or Justice buyers' needs, those two agencies are where the code's dollars sit. Others buy it too, just in smaller amounts.

Awards are small and numerous. About 200 contract actions averaging roughly $60,000 each in FY2025 is the pattern, which is the size resellers and small suppliers routinely handle. It is not usually the size that justifies a manufacturer building its own federal sales team. That is the reason a reseller model fits. See selling to the government through a reseller.

Expect paperwork to travel with the product. At these sizes buyers still ask for country of origin, authorization and spec details. For brand-name buys, the manufacturer's letter of authorization is often the first question. A manufacturer with these documents ready is easier to quote.

Limits of this data

• One NAICS code is one slice. It is not the market for any product.
• Obligations are not payments or sales, and they are net of deobligations.
• The latest fiscal year is the least complete.
• Award type filter A to D leaves out other types, such as IDV contract vehicles themselves, grants and direct payments.
• Small business status is a registration classification at the time of the award.
• Anyone can reproduce this from the public API. Your results will differ as the data is revised.

How Lunula Supply handles it

This is our primary code. We source from manufacturers and distributors, label the channel on every line, and send country of origin and authorization letters with the quote. If you make a product that fits the categories above and want to find out whether it is a fit for federal buyers, contact us or see what we supply. For what a prime should require of a small supplier in this chain, see what a prime should require of a small supplier.

Frequently asked questions

What is NAICS 423990?

It is "Other Miscellaneous Durable Goods Merchant Wholesalers," a catch-all for wholesalers of durable goods that do not fit another category. A contracting officer assigns a NAICS code to each requirement, and it is the code that appears on the award in USAspending.

How much does the federal government spend under NAICS 423990?

Per USAspending as of October 7, 2026, contract obligations under this code were about $12.4 million in FY2025, and between $13.5 million and $14.4 million in each of FY2021 to FY2024. These figures change as agencies report.

Who buys the most under this code?

In FY2025 the Department of Defense accounted for about 69 percent and the Department of Justice about 26 percent. The Department of Transportation and GSA were each a few percent or less.

Does this show how big the federal market is for my product?

No. It shows what was coded to one NAICS code. Many purchases of the same products are coded elsewhere, so use product and service codes and keyword searches in USAspending to size your own market.

General information, not legal advice. Figures come from the USAspending.gov API as of October 7, 2026, and change as agencies report. They describe contracts coded to one NAICS code, not the whole market for any product.