Survey of MSME exporters of goods and services in Uruguay

The survey carried out by Uruguay XXI is available to micro, small and medium enterprises (mipymes) exporting goods and services in Uruguay in order to generate inputs on needs and challenges when exporting. The results of this survey were presented within the framework of the launch of the Proexport + export development program.

Among the companies that responded to the survey, conducted in 2016, 80% of them said they had exported at least once in recent years. The companies exporting goods are the ones that exported the most: 86% of the total compared to 75% of the total of the services sector. The United States and the countries of the region stand out among the main export destinations.

According to the companies' perception of the services provided by Uruguay XXI, a high level of overall satisfaction stands out (75%). When analyzing the tools provided by the institute, the Proexport program was the one with the highest levels of satisfaction (87%), followed by international fairs, the FODIME program and commercial visits (66% and 68% respectively) . The consultation also shows that about half of the companies used some of the general incentives to export, Tax Rebate was the most used (35%).

The results of the survey reveal that the main barriers that MSMEs have to export are the lack of information about the destination markets, as well as the permits and procedures when selling their products abroad. While for the exporters of goods, the procedures and permits, the tariff and para-tariff barriers, are identified as obstacles, the exporters of services highlight the lack of information, the need for additional training of human resources, the need for financing and the business management difficulties.

The survey was conducted in order to obtain more information about the behavior of the exporting MSMEs of goods and services of Uruguay, to know their support needs and to generate inputs to design support programs. Field work and data processing was done by Equipos Consultores. From a sample of 1,600 MSMEs (1000 of services and 600 of goods), a response of 396 was obtained, which answered about the main characteristics of the companies and their export activity, barriers that they perceive for export, use of existing support programs and needs for additional support.

The result of the survey was presented on September 1 at the launch of the Proexport + program, which is a tool specifically designed for the development of exporting MSMEs or those with export potential..

To Access to the presentation of hte survey click here.
To read the complete report click here.