Findings

Analytical Overview

In 2007, 45,260 establishments exported more than $414 billion worth of merchandise. The declining trend in the number of exporting establishments continued for a second consecutive year, down 8.4% from a high of 49,419 in 2005 (Table 1-1 and Table 2-1).

Despite the decrease in the number of establishments, the structure of the exporting community has remained unchanged over the years. In 2007, establishments exporting $25 million or more represented 3.9% of all establishments in the Exporter Register Database and accounted for 83.9% of the total value of domestic exports. In contrast, establishments that exported less than $1 million worth of goods annually represented approximately 7 out of 10 establishments and contributed only 1.5% of the total value of domestic exports (Table 5 and Table 6).

From 1997 to 2007, the number of exporting establishments increased by 11.5%, while the value of exported merchandise increased 48.3% or $134.8 billion (Table 1-1 and Table 2-1).

Industry

The Manufacturing sector had 44.9% of the number of exporters in 2007 and accounted for 58.8% of the total value of exports. Meanwhile, the Wholesale Trade sector accounted for 22.3% of the number of exporters and 12.8% of the total value of exports in 2007. These two sectors accounted for over 70% of the total value of Canadian domestic exports (Table 1-1 and Table 2-1).

Within the Manufacturing sector, the value of exports in the Transportation equipment manufacturing industry ($75.9 billion in 2007) has steadily decreased over the last five years since reaching a high of $98.6 billion in 2002. This industry accounted for 40.1% of all exports from the Manufacturing sector in 2002 but only 31.2% in 2007 (Table 1-2 and Table 2-2).

Outside of the Manufacturing sector, Mining, Oil and Gas Extraction sector has had the largest increase in terms of both the number of exporters and the value of exports between 1997 and 2007. In 1997, the sector exported $11.5 billion dollars representing 4.1% of the total value of exports that year. In 2007, the sector exported $35.6 billion or 8.6% of the total value of exports. The value of exports increased three-fold during this timeframe. In terms of number of exporters, the sector grew by 25.0% over this same timeframe yet only accounted for 1% of the total exporter count for all years (Table 1-1 and Table 2-1).

Destination

In 2007, about 60% of all exporters relied exclusively on the United States as their sole export market. This measure has been steadily declining since 2000 when 71.8% of all exporters shipped goods exclusively to the United States.

Approximately 8,500 exporters or 18.7% of exporters concentrated their exports to non-U.S. markets only. In 2007, one-fifth of exporters shipped goods to both the United States and abroad. For the second consecutive year, the number of exporters that exported to both United States and other countries decreased 11.3% from the previous year (Table 3-1).

In terms of the value of domestic exports for U.S.-only exporters, the 2007 total value of exports totalled $186.9 billion; a slight increase of 1.8% from the previous year. This exporter group accounted for over 45% of the total value of Canada’s merchandise exports (Table 4-1).

The non-U.S. only market exporter group reached a high of $30.2 billion in total value of exports which was an increase of 7.2% from 2006. The non-U.S. only exporter group accounted for 7.3% of the total value of Canada’s merchandise exports (Table 4-1).

Exporters to both the United States and Non-United States generated almost half (47.5%) of all domestic exports. This rate has been consistent for the last six years, reaching a high of $216.6 billion (53.9%) in 2005 (Table 4-1).

A total of 36,814 establishments exported to the United States in 2007, down 7.1% from the previous year. Some 18,300 establishments exported to destinations other than the United States, down 7.5% from the previous year and the second consecutive decrease since reporting a high of 20,258 establishments in 2005 (Table 3-2 and Table 3-3).

In line with the decline in the number of exporters to the United States, the value of exports to this country also dropped in 2007, falling 0.8% to $327.5 billion. Despite the fall in the number of exporters, the value of exports to non-U.S. destinations increased, rising 16.2% to $86.3 billion (Table 4-2 and Table 4-3).

As has traditionally been the case, in 2007, more than 80% of all exporters shipped merchandise to the United States, accounting for over 79% of the total value of exports. (Table 3-2 and Table 4-2).

At the same time, over 40.0% of all exporters sold merchandise to countries other than the United States. This has remained virtually unchanged over the last three years in terms of both the value of exports and number of establishments (Table 3-3 and Table 4-3).

Size

In 2007, the vast majority of the fall in the numbers of exporters was due to the decline in the number of exporters exporting less than $1 million which accounts for a drop of 7.4% from 2006. Similarly, the number of exporters exporting $25 million and over decreased at a rate of 3.5% from 2006 (Table 5).

The structure of the exporting community has remained unchanged over the years, with establishments exporting less than $1 million worth of goods annually accounting for about 70% of exporting establishments. In contrast, establishments exporting $25 million or more represented only 3.9% of all establishments (Table 5).

There has also been little change when looking at the value of domestic exports. Establishments exporting $25 million or more account for over 80% of the total value of Canadian merchandise exports, while those exporting less than $1 million worth of goods annually contributed less than 2% of the total value (Table 6).

Employment

In 2007, almost three quarters (73.8%) of all exporters employed fewer than 50 employees. These exporters also accounted for almost one third (30.3%) of the value of domestic exports. At the other end of the scale, the largest exporters in terms of employment (those employing 200 employees or more), represented a minority (6.2%) of exporters. These exporters accounted for almost half (43.5%) of the value of all exports (Table 7 and Table 8).

Taking into account both measures of size, 8 out of 10 exporters employed less than 50 employees and exported less than $1 million worth of goods. However, the total value of merchandise exported by these establishments in 2007 totalled $4.3 billion, or 1.0% of the total value of domestic exports. By comparison, exporters with 200 or more employees that exported more than $25 million worth of merchandise were a small minority (1.6%). Nevertheless, these exporters were responsible for $170 billion worth of domestic exports, 41.1% of the total value of exports in 2007 (Table 8).

Provinces

In 2007, 40,873 or 90.4% of Canadian exporting establishments were located in the following provinces: Ontario (45.5%); Quebec (22.1%); British Columbia (14.0%) and Alberta (8.8%). In terms of value of domestic exports, Ontario continued to occupy the largest share at 42.9% followed by Alberta (21.6%), Quebec (17.1%) and British Columbia (7.6%) (Table 9 and Table 10).

Between 2006 and 2007, the largest decrease in the number of exporters was found in Ontario. This province reported 1,355 fewer exporters and accounted for 45% of the decline in the national number of exporters. Quebec reported 827 fewer exporters (27% of the national total) (Table 9).

Between 2006 and 2007, the largest decrease in terms of losses in the value of Canadian domestic exports was found in British Columbia, this province reported a loss of 5.7% (Table 10).

Average Export Value

The value of exports per exporting establishment varies widely across Canada, ranging from a high of $33.4 million in Newfoundland and Labrador to a low of $3.9 million in Prince Edward Island (Table 10).

New exporters

New exporters accounted for 4.5% of all exporters in 2007, while the total value exported by this group was $3.1 billion. The average value exported by each new exporter averaged $1.5 million per establishment in 2007.

Another characteristic of the new exporters that is different than the average exporter is their decreasing reliance on the United States as an export destination. In 2007, 60% of new exporters shipped to the United States and 47% of their value of exports went to the U.S. which is different than the typical exporter of 2007 where 81% of establishments export to the U.S. which accounts for 79% of their value of domestic exports.

The overwhelming majority of new exporters exported less than $1 million in their first year (88.5% in 2007). In 2007, their exports made up over 9% of the total value exported by new exporters.

The majority of new exporters belonged to the non-manufacturing sector (74.4% in 2007), contributing 65.7% to the total export value generated by new exporters.

The provincial pattern of new exporters is similar to that of exporters in general, with the majority of them residing in Ontario (40.4%), Quebec (19.3%), Alberta (17.1%) and British Columbia (14.6%).

83.5% of new exporters had fewer than 50 employees and accounted for 55.9% of the value of domestic exports by new exporters. Approximately 5% of establishments had 200 employees or more contributing 27% of the total value of domestic exports by new exporters.

Exporting Patterns

Almost one third of all establishments that exported in 2007 had also exported every year since 1996. These veteran exporters accounted for 72% of all exports in 2007. They also tended to have more employees. Indeed, 53% of them employed 200 or more employees as opposed to only 6.3% of the general exporting community.

Establishments with high export values were also more likely to have greater export experience. In 2007, 67.2% of exporters who had exported $25 million or more had also engaged in export activity every year between 1996 and 2007. In contrast only 16.7% of those who had exported under $100,000 in 2007 had done so.

The data show that the longer an establishment refrains from exporting activities, the less likely it is to resume exporting. Indeed, of the 4,800 establishments that had ceased exporting in 1996, about one third resumed export activities the following year (1997), and another 12% the year after that (1998). About one-third (36%) of them had not resumed exporting by 2007.

Enterprises

In 2007, the Canadian exporter community consisted of some 45,260 exporting establishments which were represented by 36,303 enterprises (see Methodology and data concepts and definitions section for further description of establishments and enterprises). The following analysis focuses on enterprise data only.

For the purposes of the Exporter Register, enterprises are classified as one of three types:

• Single-establishment, single exporter enterprises (one establishment that exported);
• Multi-establishment, single exporter enterprises (Type I, numerous establishments, one of which exported); and
• Multi-establishment, multi-exporter enterprises (Type II, numerous establishments, several of which exported).

In 2007, the majority of exporters (91.2%) were single-establishment enterprises. These enterprises accounted for 39.9% of the total value of exports. The remaining 8.8% were multi-establishment enterprises. Type I enterprises represented 5.2% of exporting enterprises and 10.1% of value of exports. Type II enterprises represented 3.0% of enterprises and 51% of value of exports.

The 50 largest exporting enterprises accounted for almost half (48.8%) of total exports.