Irish Border Trade At All-Time High

The level of goods being traded across the Irish border is at an all-time high, according to a North-South body.

Cross-border trade stood at £6.11 billion in 2017, a figure which has grown at an average rate of 4% per annum over the past 20 years.

Northern Ireland is responsible for between 10-12% of total exports from Ireland to the UK and accounts for 7-8% of all imports.

Aidan Gough, Director of Strategy and Policy at InterTrade Ireland (ITI) discussed the opportunities of North-South trading, which "improve capability" and "drive competitiveness, growth and jobs".

"The microeconomic impact that InterTrade Ireland has had through its programmes and initiatives over the last 20 years is significant," he said.

ITI is a Newry based organisation and provides SMEs across the island with sales growth, innovation, business funding and business insight support.

It also aims to facilitate small Northern Ireland based companies to explore new cross-border markets and develop new products, processes and services.

It has assisted over 39,000 companies, with 9,000 benefiting through trade and innovation projects which generated over £1bn of business development value and 14,800 jobs.

"At a more macroeconomic level, total cross-border trade in goods has been growing since 1997 at an average rate of 4% per annum and currently stands at £6.11 billion for 2017. The benefits to firms involved in this trade are more pervasive than you may think. 

"Northern Ireland exports to Ireland were worth some £3.9bn to the local economy in 2017, with 758,000 cross-border deliveries. In addition, there were approximately 410,000 import deliveries in 2015 from Ireland to Northern Ireland businesses worth nearly £2.0bn, not including financial and farm sectors."

Mr Gough continued: "These figures represent important components of Northern Ireland's private sector economic activity and for Northern Ireland goods trade represent a 115% increase in sales value since 1997.  

"For over half (51%) of Irish exporters, Northern Ireland is the destination for more than 50% of their exports, while for 26% of Irish firms, it is their only export market. The cross-border market also plays a valuable role in a broader export development strategy, with 71% of exporters reporting that cross-border trading was the catalyst for exporting further afield, of the island."



(JG/CM)