The State of Small Business in Barbados

National Survey of the Small Business Sector (Barbados)

The central message of the 2016 study was that MSMEs, particularly in services, were visible contributors to the country’s export earnings, even though exporting was concentrated among a limited number of firms. On the other hand, this current 2025 study’s analysis measures exports as a share of MSME revenue, revealing that exports typically account for only a small fraction of MSME business activity, even among firms that export.

Table 3.8: Estimated Revenue from Exporting (Exporters Only)

Average Export Share of Sales (Exporters only)

Percent of Firms Exporting

Sector

Size

Total Estimated Revenue (BDS $ Millions)

Estimated Exports (BDS $ Millions)

Micro Small

13.60% 30.80% 50.00% 6.20% 10.00% 12.50%

17.50% 8.30% 5.00% 21.80% 16.60% 11.30%

813

19.3

217.4 364.6

5.6 9.1

Industry

Medium

Industry TOTAL

34

Micro Small

948.1

12.8

1,083.40 1,467.30

18

Services

Medium

20.7

Services TOTAL 51.5 Note. Estimated export values are indicative and derived by applying survey-based export participation rates and average export shares of sales to estimated MSME revenue by size and sector. These estimates assume that exporting and non-exporting firms within each category have similar revenue structures and should be interpreted as approximations rather than precise measures of actual export earnings. Small sample sizes among exporting firms in some size–sector groups may also affect the stability of the estimates. This section examines the distribution of MSME export exposure across destination markets, focusing not only on whether firms export to particular regions, but also on the share of total exports accounted for by each market. The results highlight a strong regional concentration of MSME export activity and very limited penetration into extra-regional markets (see Table 3.9). 3.8 Export Markets Served by MSMEs Dominance of CARICOM and Regional Markets CARICOM emerges as the most significant export destination for MSMEs that engage in exporting. While 31.0 per cent of respondents report no exports to CARICOM, the majority of exporters demonstrate some level of regional engagement. Notably, 44.8 per cent of firms allocate less than 10 per cent of their total exports to CARICOM, suggesting that for many businesses CARICOM serves as a secondary or supplementary market rather than a primary export destination. At the same time, CARICOM is the only region where a meaningful share of firms report high export concentration. Approximately 24.1 per cent of MSMEs exporting to CARICOM allocate 10–25 per cent or more of their total exports to the region, including 6.9 per cent of firms that direct more than half of their total exports to CARICOM markets.

24

Small Business Association of Barbados