Characteristics of Australian Exporters

The number of exporters increased by 7% to 56,772 between 2017-18 and 2018-19. This continues the upward trend seen since 2013-14. Most of this increase was in the category of small exporters, which increased by 11% to 34,451.

The majority of Australian merchandise (goods) exporters are small businesses (61%), which contribute only 1% of the total export value. While only 12% of merchandise exporters are large businesses, which accounted for 96% of the value.

Of the 56,772 exporting businesses, only 328 businesses exported merchandise over $100m in the 2018-19 financial year, which accounted for 86% of the total export value.

For 2018-19 the typical exporter, based on the median of all exporters, had:

• two employees;
• turnover of $700,000;
• exports valued at $30,000;
• three export transactions; and,
• trade with a single export market (country of final destination).

While the Mining industry made up only 1% of the total number of exporters, they continue to account for over half (61%) of the exports value. The second most dominant industry was Manufacturing, contributing 22% of the exports value.

The Mining industry also accounted for most ($47 billion) of the year on year increase in the value of Australian exports. This increase was influenced by continued demand for Australia’s resource commodities, such as coal, iron ore, and liquefied natural gas. The average exports value per Mining exporter increased from $387m to $461m.

By number of exporters, wholesale trade was the largest industry making up 25% (14,208) of all merchandise exporters.

Approximately half of all exporters had only one or two export transactions across the 2018-19 financial year. In contrast, 91% of the total export value was attributed to businesses which undertook 51 or more export transactions across the year.

The states and territories where resource exports are prominent, saw significant increases in export value between 2017-18 and 2018-19:

• Western Australia, up 25% to $162 billion, the main contributors to the increase were iron ore and liquefied natural gas;
• Queensland up 17% to $87 billion, the main contributors to the increase were coal and liquefied natural gas;
• New South Wales up 13% to $54 billion, due mainly to increased coal exports; and,
• Northern Territory up 65% to $9.4 billion due mainly to increased liquefied natural gas exports.

The other states saw relatively little year on year change.

Western Australia continues to be the most dominant State of origin for exported merchandise overall, accounting for 44% of the total value.

In 2018-19, the main state of exporter location was New South Wales (14,871 exporters), followed by Victoria (13,517). Together, half of Australian merchandise exporters have a main business address in either New South Wales or Victoria.

For most industries, New South Wales is the state where the highest number of merchandise exporters are located. The Mining industry is the most notable exception, with Mining exporters most commonly located in Western Australia (43%) and Queensland (25%).

The total value of exports increased by 18% to $373 billion, mainly as a result of substantial increases in the value of iron ore, coal and liquefied natural gas exports. As a result of this, states with significant exports of these commodities (Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Northern Territory) experienced related year on year increases to their total export value.

In 2018-19, China continued to be Australia's largest export destination, with $134 billion worth of exports (up $29 billion or 27% year on year), which accounted for 36% of total merchandise exports. Across the 2018-19 financial year 14% of all exporters had a transaction with China.

Overall, the average export value per exporter was $6.6m. However, the average differed considerably across destination countries. The countries with the largest average export value (per exporter) were China ($16.4m) and Japan ($16.1m).

By merchandise exporter count, New Zealand was the most dominant market, with 34% (19,193) of all exporters, exporting at least once to New Zealand in 2018-19.

This release previously used catalogue number 5368.0.55.006