The majority of exporters are still in a positive frame of mind despite exchange rate challenges and the lacklustre growth affecting some parts of the world economy, ExportNZ executive director Catherine Beard says.
Commenting on the ExportNZ 2012 survey, Ms Beard said more than half of the 169 respondents expected their profitability to improve in the next 12 months and nearly 36% expected to employ more people.
In the next 12 months, 19.6% expected their orders to rise substantially and 48% said they expected orders to rise slowly.
The top five export destinations were Australia, North America, Europe (including the United Kingdom), China (including Hong Kong) and Asean (Association of South-East Asian Nations).
The main four obstacles to exporting or exporting more were: demand offshore, exch-ange rate volatility, funding for developing export markets, and price competitiveness of their products.
Ms Beard said it was good to see the resilience of the export sector in the survey results, particularly given the global slowdown and the volatile dollar.
"There is a significant list of non-tariff barriers that exporters are battling and ExportNZ is keen to work with government officials to tackle them," she said.
The New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association is again calling for a cut in the official cash rate, which was left at 2.5% on Thursday by the Reserve Bank.
Chief executive John Walley said the cut was needed to relieve exchange rate pressure on the export sector.
Prudential requirements of higher capital reserves for asset back lending were needed to offset the impact of lower interest rates on asset markets.
"History has shown we cannot deal with both issues using only one tool - interest rates. The trade deficit in the June quarter demonstrates we cannot afford to continue with this policy."
The association was urging the Government to deal with an overvalued exchange rate to enable an export-led recovery.
