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Characteristics of Australian Exporters

This publication provides an analysis of the number and characteristics of Australia's merchandise exporters.

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Reference period
2019-20 financial year

Key statistics

 

  • The number of exporters increased marginally to 56,274.
  • The total value of merchandise exports reached a record high of $382b.
  • 62% of all exporters were small exporters.
  • The mining industry was the only industry to see an increase in the number of exporters in 2019-20, increasing 4%.

The 2019-20 release of Characteristics of Australian Exporters will be staggered, this first release includes:
Table 1.1 Number of merchandise exporters by value range of exports and number of export transactions
Table 3.1 Number of merchandise exporters by industry of exporter and exporter size
Table 5 Number of merchandise exporters by industry of exporter, by main state of location of exporter
Table 6 Merchandise exporters by country of destination

All remaining tables will be released at a later stage. 

A new methodology has been used to compile the 2019-20 release of Characteristics of Australian Exporters, please see Methodology for more information. 

All data contained within this release (2013-14 to 2019-20) has been produced using the same methodology and is therefore comparable over time. 

Exporter population

The number of exporters increased marginally (0.2%) to 56,274 in 2019-20, the smallest increase seen in the last 6 years.

The increase in number of exporters was predominantly in large exporters, which increased 3% to 6,362; small exporters increased by 1% to 35,051; while the number of medium exporters declined 3% to 14,861.

62% of all exporters are small exporters, while only 11% are large exporters. Please refer to Exporter size in the Methodology for more information on size criteria.

Industry of exporter

The wholesale trade industry continues to be the largest industry, making up 24% (13,351) of all exporters, followed by manufacturing which made up 16% (8,966) of exporters.

While the mining industry made up only 1% of the total number of exporters, it was the only industry to increase, up 4% to 478.

(a) Includes goods exporters in Electricity, gas, water and waste services; Accommodation and food services; Information media and telecommunications; Financial and insurance services; Rental, hiring and real estate services; Professional, scientific and technical services; Administrative and support services; Public administration and safety; Education and training; Health, care and social assistance; Arts and recreation services; as well as businesses that lack a classification under ANZSIC 2006 and businesses yet to confirm their main industry of activity with the Australian Taxation Office.

Frequency of export

Half of all exporters (50%) had only one or two export transactions across 2019-20.  In contrast, 10% of businesses undertook 51 or more export transactions across the year. 

Number of merchandise exporters, by number of export transactions
Number of Export TransactionsNumber of Merchandise Exporters
No.%
Fewer than 328,10050
3 to 1014,58826
11 to 204,1657
21 to 503,9437
51 or more5,47810
Total56,274100

 

Location of exporter (main state)

There was a decline in the number of exporters across all of the main exporting states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia) in 2019-20, with a small increase in exporters located in Tasmania. A larger offsetting increase was seen in state not specified with a number of exporters using a Customs Client Identifier (CCID) to complete their export documentation. Use of a CCID rather than ABN means the exporter cannot be linked to a state, as such care should be taken when interpreting counts of exporters by state due to increasing use of CCID's.

The main state of exporter location continues to be New South Wales (13,927 exporters), followed by Victoria (12,568). Together, almost half (47%) of Australian merchandise exporters have a main address in these states.

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 (42%) and Queensland (25%).

Export destination (country of final destination)

In 2019-20, China continued to be Australia's largest export destination, with $150b worth of exports (up $16b or 12% on 2018-19), which accounted for 39% of total merchandise exports. Across 2019-20, 15% of all exporters had a transaction with China, up from 14% in 2018-19.

Overall, the average export value per exporter was $6.8m. However, the average differed considerably across destination countries. The countries with the largest average export value (per exporter) were China ($18m) and Japan ($14.5m).

By merchandise exporter count, New Zealand was the most dominant market, with 33% (18,716) of all exporters, exporting at least once to New Zealand in 2019-20.

Data downloads

Table 1 Number of merchandise exporters, by value range of exports and number of export transactions

Data files
Download xlsx [29.94 KB]

Table 3 Number of merchandise exporters, by industry of exporter and exporter size

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Download xlsx [28.59 KB]

Table 5 Number of merchandise exporters, by industry of exporter, by main state of location and exporter

Data files
Download xlsx [30.44 KB]

Table 6 Merchandise exporters, by country of destination

Data files
Download xlsx [62.1 KB]

All tables

Data files
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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5368.0.55.006

Methodology

Characteristics of Australian Exporters methodology, 2019-20 financial year