Exports dominated by single-product single-destination firms

TIRANA, May 28 – Albania and Macedonia exhibit the lowest average export values per exporter (less than 800,000 USD) among 45 economies, mostly developing ones, according to a World Bank Exporter Dynamics Database. The recently issued report covering the 2006-2008 period shows the share of the top 1 percent exporters in Albania is 33 percent and the number of products per exporter only 3 and the number of destinations per exporter at only 1.5., being one of the lowest among surveyed countries.
Almost half of Albania’s exporting companies some 45.4 percent are single-product single-destination firms. The firms’ survival rate stands at 47 percent, among the highest in the report.
A key finding of the report is that on a global level the export market is difficult to tackle for newcomers, with 57 percent of companies on average – and two-thirds in Africa – quitting within a year of entering the export market.
The new Exporter Dynamics Database offers the most comprehensive picture yet of exporter characteristics and dynamics – a firm’s entry, exit and survival in the export market – in 45 developed and developing countries. The database mainly covers 2003-2009.
A few large companies dominate export markets in developing and developed countries, with the top one percent often accounting for more than half – sometimes nearly 80 percent – of total exports, according to a new World Bank database with a wealth of details on exporting firms.
Fuelled by ongoing rising demand from Italy, Albanian exports continued registering double-digit growth for the second year in a row after the shrink in the outbreak of the global crisis in 2009.
Central bank data show Albania’s exports rose by 19.7 percent to Euro 1.4 billion in 2011, compared to an annual growth rate of 56 percent in 2010 and an 18 percent shrink in 2009. Italy continued remaining Albania’s top trade partner accounting for 53 percent of exports and 30 percent of imports, according to INSTAT data. Albania’s major exports to Italy are garment and footwear products, accounting for 50 percent of total exports there.