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Strong revenue growth in China, the US and UK provide optimism for small business exporters.

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell predicts 2018 will be a year of strong growth for small business exporters.

Ms Carnell said Australia’s International Business Survey 2017 showed there’s greater confidence among businesses that are already exporting.

In agriculture and wholesaling, two thirds of businesses believe the outlook is better than the previous two years.

China, the US and UK have been identified as markets where strong revenue growth will occur.

Commissioned by the Export Council of Australia with support from Austrade, Efic and UTS, the survey revealed that an increasing number of firms are “born global”, which means they’re exporting at the very beginning.

Ms Carnell said the survey findings matched Efic’s exporter sentiment index from August, which showed two thirds of respondents expected future sales revenue to increase.

“Potential exporters need to know there is support available from Austrade and Efic to research their markets, make connections and obtain finance,” she said.

“Over the past three years, Efic has worked with more than 262 small businesses and provided more than $350 million in financial support.

“Efic is the Australian Government’s export credit agency; it operates on a commercial basis and partners with banks.

“Rapidly growing small businesses need finance that doesn’t require putting the family home on the line.”