Insider Media Limited

A dramatic rise in non-EU trade has led to record export figures in the region for the first three months of 2011. Peter Hogarth, international trade director for UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) in the East Midlands, told Insider that a rise in exports throughout North America, Asia and Australasia has meant a £4.4bn pricetag on the region's overseas trade market.

International trade in the East Midlands increased by 12 per cent year-on-year.

Hogarth said: "The biggest rise has been in non EU sales; companies are definitely looking away from Europe and towards countries which were less affected by the economic downturn, or which have recovered much better than many EU states."

In the first three months of 2011, exports to Asia grew by 17.7 per cent and by 19.6 per cent to Australasia. The North American market grew by more than 16 per cent.

Hogarth said the sectors which are leading the way for exports in the East Midlands are transport and machinery, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of all overseas trade within the three-month period.

"If you want to grow your business, you have to go where business is growing," said Hogarth. "It's not growing too much in the UK, so businesses have to start looking further afield. Part of the battle id working out which country is best suited for your business. We find many companies are worried about language barriers, beauocracy and whether anyone will be interested in their product abroad – all problems which can be solved."

In the last quarter of 2010, the East Midlands had the lowest regional increase compared to the same period of the previous year. These new figures push East Midlands up the export table, but the region is still below the national average increase of 17.6 per cent.

"Exporting does need time and effort, and may seem initially daunting, but the rewards can be phenomenal - not to mention the immense satisfaction of travelling, meeting people of different cultures and having them buy your product or service," said Hogarth. "It can open so many doors, so once you start to export, there's no limit to where you can go with it."