It said that in the next twelve months, the majority (76%) of respondents said they expected business profitability to improve, 19% stay the same and 4% to deteriorate.  Most (53%) expected their business to employ more people with 37% employing the same and only a small number reducing staff (9.7%).

The 2014 Exporters Survey was in the field between August and October 2014. There were 124 responses with the majority identifying themselves as manufacturers (69%) with the second biggest category being from the Agriculture, Forestry or Fishing sectors, 11%.

There was a good spread of large, medium and small exporters that responded to the survey.

The main findings of the survey include:

Business Outlook Positive

In the next twelve months, the majority (76%) said they expected business profitability to improve, 19% stay the same and 4% to deteriorate. Most (53%) expected their business to employ more people with 37% employing the same and only a small number reducing staff (9.7%).

While the majority (73%) are able to access enough skilled staff to grow their business, quite a few (27%) said this is a constraint.

For exporters of both goods and services, the majority (57.9) said the goods exports had grown faster and 42% said their services exports had grown faster.

In the next twelve months, the majority expected their orders across all markets to increase; either slowly (51%) or substantially (31%).

Which Markets?

The top three market destinations for respondents were Australia, Europe and North America, followed closely by ASEAN.

40.7% said they expected to enter new markets in the next twelve months, which shows that these exporters are not resting on their laurels.

The most popular new markets were ASEAN followed by Europe/UK.

New market regions in the next 12 months

Median growth expected from new markets ranged from 5% in Korea to 15% in North America.

Top obstacles restraining growth

Exchange rate levels and price competitiveness of products were the top obstacles followed closely by funding for developing overseas markets and overseas regulatory requirements.

The main way exporters said they were managing the challenges of the high dollar was improving productivity, investing in new product development and hedging.

Regulatory and non-tariff barriers

While the majority of respondents don’t have these problems, 45% of respondents do. There seem to be some real challenges with China, but the challenges are in many different markets as well. They are listed below as reported by exporters for the information of our Government Officials who gives exporters assistance in this area.

• Australia - where Duty-free imports regulations have worsened significantly – f rom 50% to 90% of components of finished products – which now need to be made in NZ to qualify for concession;
• Biosecurity issues in Australia;
• Brazil - IP protection lacking;
• Asia - not entered Asian markets because of the difficulty of getting adequate IP protection
• China - HS code classification and delaying shipments. No official ruling given nor pathway to resolution, legislation changes and not adhering to CNZFTA;
• China has different requirements for different ports of entry;
• Indonesia if actively blocking imports with changing requirements;
• China, changing regulatory landscape, NZ MPI lack of resources to negotiate appropriate OMARs for value added food items;
• India 50% tariff on fresh produce;
• New Caledonia' high customs duty rates favouring local manufacture and EU suppliers
• “The wrong H.S Code for Potatoes agreed to with the Philippines Government on the AANZFTA is a Non Tarrif Barrier."

Government Support

Of the survey respondents 61.3% are receiving assistance from NZTE and 38.7% were not.

In terms of Government assistance for exporting, more export market development assistance was the most popular, followed by R & D assistance. It also looks like exporters would like to go to more trade shows with other New Zealand companies with the assistance of NZTE.

Top success factors

Respondents voted for quality of product/service, innovation and customer service as the top three success factors.

Broadband speeds were fast enough for most businesses, with close to 60% saying yes, but it is a concern that 40% say no – as this could be a new route to export that we need to be chasing a lot harder.

On-line marketing is opening up new opportunities for a significant number of respondents (38%), which underlines the need for adequate broadband speeds.

Is lack of capital an issue?

About 24% are struggling with a lack of capital to expand.

Who participated?

The 2014 Exporters Survey was in the field between August and October 2014. There were 124 responses with the majority identifying themselves as manufacturers (69%) with the second biggest category being from the Agriculture, Forestry or Fishing sectors, 11%.

A good percentage of respondents were quite large employers but smaller employers were also well represented. When it came to overseas employees, the majority had few overseas employees (57% between 1 and 4 staff) while 6% had over 150 employees overseas.