All-island trade set to hit all time high
Since opening its doors 25 years ago InterTradeIreland has assisted tens of thousands of businesses on both sides of the border.
The all-island economic development agency helps firms across the island to trade cross-border, connect, innovate, collaborate, and attract investment. Its unique role is to identify opportunities for north/south collaboration that accelerate economic growth and to date it has generated £1.6 billion in business development value.
agendaNi sits down with InterTradeIreland’s Director of Strategy, Martin Robinson, who observes that the economic importance of all-island trade has never been more apparent.
Official figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) for 2022 show that cross-border trade reached an all-time high of £10 billion. These figures are not yet available for 2023. However, according to the Central Statistics Office in Ireland (CSO), goods trade alone in 2023 was valued at €10 billion, suggesting that the figure, including services, will be even higher.
“We know that there are significant benefits available through increased trade and co-operation across the island. We have an important piece of research underway that will help us and our partners to deliver more enterprise growth and drive productivity through collaboration. We look forward to sharing the findings with businesses, industry groups and policymakers,” Martin says.
“One of our great strengths is our agility, which allows us to respond to changing business needs. A great example of this is our All-Island Business Monitor, the largest survey of its type on the island. We speak to over 750 businesses every quarter and this enables us to stay on the pulse of business sentiment. We really listen to what businesses are telling us, and that helps to inform the strategic direction of our initiatives and programmes, as well as provide insight to policymakers.”
InterTradeIreland’s programmes include a suite of services to enable businesses at all stages of their export journey to take advantage of all-island trade opportunities.
“For any business that wants to grow, the cross-border market is an obvious place to start. Our trade export pathway offers free specialist support to develop cross-border sales, while our Trade Hub contains all the latest information and advice for businesses engaged, or planning to engage, in trade between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
“For example, new requirements from September 2024 will impact some businesses in Northern Ireland that receive parcels from Great Britain.
Our Trade Hub explains this in detail and also includes access to advice, tailored support and a fully funded trade health check for businesses.”
InterTradeIreland also supports businesses across the island to take advantage of all-island innovation, clustering, and funding opportunities.
“Our Innovation Boost and Business Explorer programmes partner SMEs and academics across the island, delivering industry-led knowledge transfer that results in new and improved products and services. As partners of the all-island Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN), we also support the flow of equity investment to ambitious entrepreneurs across the island,” says Robinson.
One company that has reaped the benefits of InterTradeIreland’s wide-ranging expertise is SustainIQ, the Belfast-based software company that has emerged as a significant player in the sustainability sector.
Founded by Maria Diffley and Liam McEvoy in 2018, SustainIQ helps companies measure, monitor and report on their social, economic, and environmental performance. Both founders had identified a pressing need for efficient data capture and analysis in sustainability, which led them to create SustainIQ, a comprehensive software solution that integrates various sustainability metrics into a single, easy-to-use dashboard.
SustainIQ’s software is used on over 600 sites across the UK and Ireland, with leading firms such as Gilbert-Ash, Elliott Group, McCue, and JP Corry among its clients.
InterTradeIreland’s E-Merge programme helped SustainIQ in 2021 by providing fully funded consultancy support to develop their online sales and ecommerce solutions. Liam McEvoy says the programme helped fast track their marketing to potential clients throughout Ireland.
SustainIQ was also a finalist in the 2022 Seedcorn competition, a €300,000 InterTradeIreland prize fund that helps businesses get ‘investor ready’ and which Maria Diffley said had been invaluable in helping them visualise their growth trajectory over the next decade.
Because InterTradeIreland offers support to SMEs at every stage of their export journey, SustainIQ was able to benefit from further help through its Acumen programme, which eases and derisks the process of cross-border exporting. Participants receive a significant contribution towards the cost of employing a sales resource, alongside other support such as market research, recruitment, and sales workshops. According to Liam McEvoy, Acumen helped SustainIQ adapt their sales and marketing strategy for the Ireland market and generated an additional 20 per cent of annual revenue in 2023 as a direct result of taking part in the programme. As a measure of its success, they recently joined an InterTradeIreland facilitated trade mission to Cork, helping it explore further opportunities in the market.
Robinson says that cross-border collaboration is hugely important for policymakers as well as businesses.
“Both economies have common policy priorities which include increasing the number of exporting businesses, good jobs, driving innovation and assisting the transition to a low-carbon economy,” he explains.
“There is also scope to develop internationally competitive all-island clusters, which will have huge benefits for SMEs in terms of innovation, collaboration, and supply chain opportunities. We have a key role to play in helping the Department for the Economy deliver its economic vision by identifying opportunities to accelerate economic growth through joined-up approaches across the island.”
Looking ahead, InterTradeIreland is clear that it has a unique role, assisting businesses and policymakers across the island with insight, expertise, and practical support to deliver tangible benefits for both economies.
T: 028 3083 4100
E: info@intertradeireland.com
W: www.intertradeireland.com
