ONS data shows 21 per cent of trading businesses with 10 or more employees exported goods, services or both, while 40 per cent of those exporters reported higher costs than a year earlier.
Just one in five trading businesses with 10 or more employees exported anything in the 12 months to late September 2026, according to the Office for National Statistics. Of those that did export, 40 per cent said their costs had risen compared with September 2025 — the highest proportion since June 2023, when it reached 43 per cent.
The figures come from the ONS Business Insights and Conditions Survey, which ran between 21 September and 4 October 2026. The 40 per cent reporting higher export costs was broadly unchanged from June 2026, suggesting that pressure on exporters has remained stubbornly elevated for several months.
That cost pressure sits alongside wider business strain, with the ONS reporting that a significant proportion of surveyed businesses expressed some degree of concern about rising fuel prices in the same period.
The ONS monitors a range of factors that can push up the cost of selling overseas — additional paperwork, exchange-rate movements, transport costs, customs duties, border checks, logistics constraints and reduced overseas demand. The survey captures businesses’ reported experiences rather than the total value of exports, so it doesn’t show which specific factors drove costs higher for any individual business.
According to the ONS, the vast majority of surveyed businesses said they were trading in late September 2026. The export figures apply only to the subset with 10 or more employees, meaning the picture for smaller businesses isn’t captured here.
Source: @ONS