Exporters toiling before outbreak of Iran war

17 Apr 2026

The UK's exporters were already experiencing challenging trading conditions before the Iran War broke out, according to research by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

A survey conducted in February and early March found 25% of businesses reporting increased orders in the first quarter.

This was an improvement on Q4 of 2025, when 21% reported increased orders, 28% a drop and 50% no change.

However, micro-exporters with fewer than ten employees are faring worse – as only 18% reported increased export orders in Q1.

In contrast, 38% of large exporters, with more than 250 staff, saw a boost in overseas orders.

The BCC says the picture is substantially different to the performance before Brexit, Covid, the war in Ukraine, US tariffs and other geopolitical disruption. In Q2 2018, 31% of all firms saw increased orders and 14% a decrease.

William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the BCC, said: 'These findings make for dispiriting reading, having mainly been collected before the impact of the Middle East conflict began to be felt.

'There are a number of things the government could do to support smaller businesses to trade overseas. First and foremost, it must boost export support and move more trade processes online to simplify the bureaucracy.

'Securing concrete progress on the EU reset and other trade and sectoral deals should also be a priority. That means faster progress on EU-UK deals on food and drink exports, agreeing a youth experience programme, electricity market reintegration, and linking EU and UK schemes on greenhouse gas emissions.'