BICS weighted Scotland estimates: data to wave 68

Exporting and Importing Challenges

The BICS asks businesses that are currently trading about how current conditions, including the end of the EU transition period, have impacted on their exporting and importing – the specific questions asked are shown below.

Question: How did your business's exporting compare with this calendar month last year?

• exported/imported more
• exporting/importing stayed the same
• exported/imported less
• business was unable to export / import
• not sure

Figure 3: Of businesses currently trading that have exported/imported in the last 12 months, 15.1% reported exporting less in September 2022 compared to September 2021, and 23.9% reported exporting more.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 68

Currently trading businesses who had exported in the last 12 months were asked where they exported goods or services to in the last 3 months.

Figure 4: Of currently trading businesses that have exported/imported in the last 12 months, 76.4% of exporters and over half (50.4%) of importers reported exporting/importing to both EU and non-EU destinations in the last 3 months.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 68

Currently trading businesses that have exported or imported in the last 12 months, and reported on how exporting compared to the previous year were asked if they had experienced an increase in exporting/importing challenges over the last month.

Figure 5: The challenges that were most commonly reported to have increased in Wave 68 were changes in transportation costs, change in exchange rates and additional paperwork – this was the case for both exporting and importing. However, an estimated 54.7% of exporters and 44.0% of importers reported that they did not experience an increase in exporting/importing challenges in September 2022 compared with August 2022.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 68

Businesses that reported challenges to exporting/importing were asked about the main cause of these exporting/importing challenges.

Figure 6: In Wave 68, 42.4% of businesses reported that the end of the EU transition period was the main cause of their exporting challenges.  This was also the most frequently reported cause of importing challenges (50.3%). The end of the EU transition period combined with the COVID-19 pandemic was reported as the main cause of challenges for a further 34.5% of exporters and 24.0% of importers.  

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 68

Businesses that experienced challenges with exporting were also asked what support options they have benefited from to help with exporting challenges. Most businesses (65.0%) responded that none of the support options listed were helpful, and this has been the most frequent response since the series began in April 2021.

Figure 7: The support options that most businesses reported that they benefitted from for exporting were information on exporting and customs/tariffs support.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 68