Enterprise Ireland’s International markets week
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What challenges do Irish exporters face in global markets?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk. Selling your products and services abroad is never easy. Differing customs, languages, currencies and product standards make it tricky. Add in the fact that the euro is 11% more expensive against the dollar since January and a global trade and tariff war as well as the threat of cut price dumping on your home markets. And you'll see what Irish exporters have on their plate. All of these topics will doubtless be on the table at Enterprise Ireland's International Markets Week. And Jenny Melia is the new chief executive of Enterprise Ireland and joins us now. Good morning, Jenny. Morning, Joe. Now, Jenny, you carried out a survey ahead of this conference, and it seems to suggest that global uncertainties and costs are what worry Irish exporters the most.
Yeah, so there's a couple of things there, Joe. I suppose the first thing to land on in terms of what the clients told us through the survey, and it's very positive, and that's that 97% of them expect to expand into new markets. To support this expansion into global markets, we have brought 140 of our market advisers from our 42 overseas offices to Dublin this week to meet with 700 of our exporting companies. So we expect to see about 2,000 face-to-face meetings taking place this week. And when I look at the export figures, I guess three things that I think really stand out for me this year And actually all three firsts when I look at them. So the first is the total level of exports from the Enterprise Ireland client base last year stood at a record 36.75 billion.
So we've come into this year on a very strong base. The second thing is the strength of the single market that grew strongly. We saw a very impressive 12.7 billion achieved in export sales. And that's actually the first time now. that the single market has overtaken the business that we're doing in the UK. So that's a big first for us. But even in the UK, we saw the UK grow to reach just over 10.5 billion. And again, we've another first there because that's actually the first time we have broken or gone beyond that 10 billion mark. export milestone to the UK. So when you look at how that success translates on the ground here at home, we have almost 235,000 people now employed right across the country, across our client base.
And those companies last year pumped 42.6 billion into the local economy.
Now, I mentioned in the queue that tariffs are among the issues that exporters will be thinking about. Half those surveyed are worried about American tariffs and the other half aren't.
Yeah, so we've about 900 of our clients, Joe, sell into the UK. And as you know, the changes... The US? Oh, sorry, into the US. Sorry, Joe. And the changes that took place this year very much impacted on the companies that were selling tangible products into the US themselves. So that's about 450 of our client companies. So in response to supporting our companies to deal with those challenges, well, first of all, we set up a dedicated tariff response team and introduced two new market diversification supports last year, last month. And essentially what those supports are doing, they're helping the companies or the smaller support helps the companies to actually assess the impact of the tariffs on their business and be able to plan around the associated remediation measures that are needed.
And then the second support, a bigger support funding of up to 150,000. What that will do then is support the companies to actually do the work around You know, bringing a new product into market or bringing their existing products, bringing their existing products into new markets.
What insights did the recent survey reveal about exporters' concerns?
I think one of the big things in terms of the tariffs is that that, you know, was difficult for companies in the beginning was when we didn't have certainty and uncertainty.
But with Donald Trump, you're never going to get certainty, are you?
Well, we have certainty now in terms of the 15% tariff. And even in light of what I would call the fresh conversation last week around pharmaceuticals.
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