Small Business Survey Scotland: 2024-2025

Trade activities

Exports

• 12 per cent of SME employers exported goods and/or services outside of the UK in the previous 12 months
• 73 per cent of exporters sold to the European Union (EU) in the past 12 months
• 84 per cent of exporters sold to non-EU countries
• A majority of SME exporters (57 per cent) sold to both EU and non-EU countries
• 56 per cent of SME exporters in Scotland sold to the USA – the highest single country destination
• 50 per cent of SME employers sold goods or services, or licensed their product to the rest of the UK, an increase from 40 per cent in the previous year

Figure 1: SME employer exporters’ export destinations

Destination of international exports (2024-25). Multiple answers allowed to this question

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland 2024-2025 from DBT and Scottish Government. For Figure 1 data, see table ‘C2c’.

Imports

• 22 per cent of SME employers in Cohort A (see methodology) directly imported from overseas; an increase on the 13 per cent figure from last year. Of these, 51 per cent of SME importers were importing goods or services from EU and non-EU. 34 per cent of SME importers were importing from the EU only and 16 per cent from non-EU countries only

Figure 2: Half of SME employers in Cohort A who imported (51 per cent) bought from both EU and non-EU countries.

Import Sources for SME importers (2024-25)

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland 2024-2025 from DBT and Scottish Government. For Figure 2 data, see tables ‘C2gii’, ‘C2giii’ and ‘C2giv’. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

• 61 per cent of SME employers bought in goods or services from the rest of the UK (broadly in line with last year)