Tampa Bay economy is going global

Even small businesses are looking overseas to sell local products, help local economy.

author: @adamzwiner

At the third Tampa Bay Export Alliance Town Hall, many Tampa Bay Area business owners gathered to learn more ways to grow business outside of the country.

The thinking goes: the Tampa Bay Area is already a global tourist destination, and businesses would be wise to sell good to those same people.

The Export Alliance was created in 2014, and has sent business delegations to Canada and Chile and has a trip planned for Mexico in 2016.

Business owners at the event tell ABC Action News that the Export Alliance sets up interviews with interested companies and provides translators and transportation on these trips, strongly increasing a company’s chance for success.

That doesn’t make it a guarantee.

The trip to Chile came just as the country suffered an economic downtown.

That trip to Canada preceded a sharp decline in the value of Canada’s dollar as well.

Still, business owners say they now have relationships with those companies and expect to grow those relationships into fruitful economic growth.

The benefits that exports would have to the local economy are pretty straightforward: more growth means more jobs and better paying jobs. Exports also helps create more economic security in case the local economy struggles in the future.

The Pinellas Economic Development corporation estimates about 2000 Tampa Bay Area companies already export goods. Canada is already the Bay Area’s biggest trader, says the Export Alliance officials. Brazil, the U.K., and Germany are also big traders with Florida businesses. Emerging markets include Latin America and the Middle East.