EXPORTERS in Northern Ireland sold less into Britain and Europe last year but more in global markets, new figures show.
Overall, firms had a combined £21.4 billion worth of external sales last year, which was down more than 10 per cent on the previous year's record-breaking £24.1 billion total.
It was the first recorded fall in external sales since records were formally kept since 2011.
Pure exports - that's goods sold outside the home and British market - were estimated to be worth £10.2 billion in 2017 which was an increase of 4.8 per cent per cent over the year and the highest level of sales on survey record.
The importance of the wider near-home markets - ie Britain and the Republic - were again underlined in the figures from the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
Sales into Britain slumped by £2.9 billion, or more than 20 per cent to £11.3 billion, the first fall on record.
And while sales into the Republic were up £540 million (or 16.2 per cent) to £3.9 billion, exports into the rest of the EU fell back by £269 million (12.1 per cent) to just shy of £2 billion.
Inside the EU, sales fell off a cliff in many key markets, notably France, where exports more than halved from £469m to £232m.
They also fell back in larger markets such as the Netherlands (£293m to £282m), Spain (£168m to £157m), Italy (£112m to £97m) and Sweden (£73m to £53m), but rose in Germany (from £539m to £579m) and Belgium (£129m to £135m).
In non-EU countries within Europe, Northern Ireland sales almost halved in Switzerland from £735m to £372m and also fell in Norway, Turkey and Russia.
But far-shore territories proved particularly lucrative for northern exporters in the last year, which will be seen as significant in the midst of the Brexit debate.
Overall exports to the rest of the world (all countries outside the EU) increased by £195 million (4.8 per cent) to £4.3 billion, with the US by far the north's biggest market in this group (£1.92bn).
Sales to Australia jumped from £94m to £124m and almost trebled to its Antipodean neighbour New Zealand from £20m to £59m.
Total sales to Asia rose by 50 per cent from £608m to £901m and were also up in the Middle East (£301m to £393m) and Africa (£179m to £186m).
