Photo credit: ICTSI SP
A Pacific Trade Invest survey for Pacific Island exporters has revealed that despite over half of all responding businesses reporting a decline in export orders over the past 12 months, respondents are confident the future holds promise with two out of three businesses expecting an increase in export orders over the next 12 months.
The Pacific Islands Export Survey 2022 comes at a critical time, providing a unique lens to understand the acute and far-reaching impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the region over the last two years.
Dr Tess Newton Cain, Pacific Analyst and Project Lead at Griffith Asia Institute’s Pacific Hub, said the survey provides a wealth of information and insights into the economic temperature of our region.
“The PTI Pacific Islands Export Survey comes at a pivotal moment as many countries of the Pacific shift from keeping COVID-19 out, to managing the impacts of living with it in their midst.
“It adds to a valuable longitudinal dataset that can inform nuanced and sophisticated analysis and policy formulation.”
The report finds that the cost of export and challenging export logistics have increasingly become barriers to Pacific exporters selling their products or services to overseas customers, with 52 per cent stating that cost of export was their main barrier and 48 per cent stating the same for export logistics.
This increased from 46 percent and 38 percent in 2020, respectively.
Mr Newton Cain says that while these challenges are expected to ease in the future, they will still be of immense significance in the short term, with exporters increasingly calling for support in the form of financial grants as they navigate this turbulent period.
“When it comes to barriers to exporting, it is not surprising to see that the major challenges are around transport costs and logistical challenges.
“While we can expect these pressures to ease over the medium term, they will continue to be of major significance in the next little while until international freight systems begin to normalise.”
PTI Australia’s Trade and Investment Commissioner, Caleb Jarvis, said that despite the many challenges, the survey also revealed the strong optimism Pacific Exporters hold for the future.
“Promisingly, we can see that business confidence among Pacific Exporters has increased over the last two years despite the many challenging environmental and economic conditions at play.
“Despite over half of all businesses reporting a decline in export orders over the past 12 months, Pacific exporters are confident that export decline has peaked.
“The future holds much promise, with 66 per cent of mature exporters and 69 per cent of new exporters anticipating an increase in revenue and export orders over the next year,” Mr Jarvis said.
Article courtesy of the Post Courier
