primary industry 
noun [mass noun] Economics
Industry, such as mining, agriculture, or forestry, that is concerned with obtaining or providing natural raw materials for conversion into commodities and products for the consumer: employment in primary industry accounts for 12 per cent of all employment in rural areas [count noun]: it is these primary industries which will decide our economic success...
- At each level of production, from primary industry to finished product and marketing, approximately half the value added is due to labor.
- Exporters also have opportunities, the best lying in elaborately transformed manufactures and the supply of inputs to export-oriented primary industries and natural resource based manufacturing.
- All the trends are the same; declining employment in manufacturing and in primary industry; rapidly rising in private services.