A team of Researchers-Professors of the Athens University of Economics and Business made a mapping of Greek exports for the period March-July 2018.
As the survey shows, Greece is a rare case of a “small semi-open” economy, the export model of which consists of:
- excessive participation of services (50%) in total exports.
- high dependence on exports of goods from mineral oils (32%).
- low participation in total industrial exports by 24% and the agricultural sector by 10%.
“Poor” surrounding countries
Greece exports mainly to neighboring countries with low incomes.
- In 2015, 75% of Greek exporting companies (30% of total exports in value) made exports to the poorest neighboring countries (Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Egypt and Lebanon).
From a few large companies
Greek exports are made by a few, very large companies.
- The 100 largest export companies exported more than 50% of total exports in 2014.
- Exporting businesses with more than 250 employees make over 70% of the country’s total exports.
- In 2015 the average export business made exports of EUR 3 million (excluding petroleum products).
Olive oil
Many of the pathogens that affect export businesses, in general, appear in the olive oil industry.
- In 2015, Italy absorbed 70% of Greek exports of unbottled olive oil. Italian exporters standardize unbottled Greek olive oil and re-export it as Italian.
- This is reflected in the fact that Italy’s share of US imports (the world’s second largest importer of olive oil) was 43.5% in 2015, while Greece’s only 3.1%.
Obstacles
What prevents Greek exports?
From the State:
- Public sector malfunctions (under-operation of competent bodies, bureaucratic export procedure, delay in VAT refund).
- The high taxation and the constant changes in the legislative framework (250 tax bills from 1975 onwards).
- Lack of access to bank lending and export insurance costs (70% of businesses have low credit standing).
- Inability to promote product marketing policies on foreign markets.
From the businesses themselves:
- Lack of competitiveness of the products they export due to the inability to create strong branding and diversification of the products themselves.
- High production costs, the sales networks abroad and the size of the companies.
Source: Giannis Agouridis/balkaneu
