Market size, share and growth by country

• Market size: what a country imported of your product in a year, from all countries, usually in US dollars.
• India's share: the part of that which came from India, as a percentage. It is imports from India divided by total imports.
• Growth: how much the imports changed on the year before, as a percentage.

Size tells you how big the prize is. Share tells you whether Indian suppliers already sell there. Growth tells you whether the market is getting bigger or smaller. Read all three together: a big market where India's share is tiny may be closed for a reason, or may be an opening, and you need more than one number to tell which.

The HS code is shared worldwide only up to 6 digits, the product type. Each country adds its own digits after that, and its final classification follows its own national tariff. So India's 8-digit code does not exist in other countries' statistics. When you compare markets, use the first 6 digits of your code.

The 6-digit code can be wider than your product. 6109 10 covers all knitted cotton T-shirts, singlets and vests, from the cheapest to the most expensive. Treat the total as the size of the product type, not of your exact item.

1. 1Rank the markets by size to see where the money is.
2. 2Look at India's share in each. A low share in a big market is a question to investigate, not a promise.
3. 3Look at growth over more than one year, so one odd year does not mislead you.
4. 4Check the duty buyers pay on goods from India in your short list of markets before you decide.

Trade figures arrive late and change. DGCI&S releases India's quick monthly estimates by the 15th of the next month and detailed 8-digit figures within 60 days, and all of them are provisional until finalised. Our India's trade figures tool runs about six weeks behind. Other countries publish a year's figures some months after it ends, so the latest year can be missing or incomplete. Pick the latest full year and say which year you used.

• A country's imports from India rarely match India's exports to it for the same goods. Imports are usually valued CIF and exports FOB, and the timing and the classification differ.
• In our Where to sell tool, EU countries' imports include trade between EU members, so a big EU importer may buy much of it from its neighbours.
• Growth there is measured in each market's own currency, so it can differ from the change in US dollars when exchange rates move.