53.7% of Exporting SMEs Say "Rising Raw Material Prices Are Their Biggest Concern"

Korea Federation of SMEs Announces Results of '2024 SME Export Outlook Survey'
"Most Needed Policy is Export Marketing Support"

Thirty percent of export-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) forecast a positive outlook for exports in 2024. However, more than half of the companies cited rising raw material prices as a risk factor.

The Korea Federation of SMEs (Chairman Kim Ki-moon) announced the results of the "2024 Export SMEs Outlook Survey" conducted on 300 export SMEs on the 28th. According to the survey, 30% of export SMEs responded positively about next year's export outlook, nearly twice as high as the 17.3% of companies that responded negatively.

Compared to the "2023 SME Export Outlook Survey" released in November last year, the positive response increased by 1.4 percentage points, while the negative response decreased by 9.4 percentage points from 26.7% to 17.3%, indicating a relatively reduced negative view of the export environment for the coming year.

The main reason for a positive export outlook next year was increased demand due to the economic recovery of export countries (34.4%), followed by efforts to diversify export countries (31.1%) and superiority in quality and price competitiveness (27.8%).

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The export risks perceived by export SMEs (multiple responses allowed) were led by rising raw material prices (53.7%). This was followed by decreased demand due to prolonged economic recession (50.3%), exchange rate fluctuations (29.3%), decreased product quality and price competitiveness (15.0%), diplomatic and trade disputes and supply chain restructuring (6.3%), and protectionism trends (4.7%).

Regarding export risk management methods (multiple responses allowed), the most common answer was utilizing export support programs (52.0%). This was followed by diversification of export countries (42.0%), efforts to reduce costs (31.3%), strengthening domestic sales ratio (12.7%), and use of trade finance (6.0%). As a key government priority task to expand exports, expanding support for export marketing such as overseas exhibitions (83.3%) was identified as the most necessary.

Choo Moon-gap, Head of the Economic Policy Division at the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "Since October, exports have turned to an increasing trend compared to the previous year, but global uncertainties such as economic recession in export countries, increased volatility in the won-dollar exchange rate, and protectionism trends continue," and he added, "Since SMEs find it relatively difficult to respond to external risks, it is necessary to strengthen export competitiveness through support measures such as overseas marketing, overseas certification, and trade finance to diversify export countries."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.