Exporting from Florida? Here’s What Your FX Strategy Should Look Like

Florida exporters sent $72.2 billion in goods overseas in 2024 according to SelectFlorida — making Florida the sixth largest export state in the US. If your Florida export business is among them, you already know that international sales create currency complexity. But most Florida exporters have never articulated a formal FX strategy. They manage currency as it comes, converting when they need to and absorbing whatever rate the market offers. That approach keeps the business running. It just leaves money on the table every month.

Step 1: Florida exporters — know your FX exposure

Your FX exposure is the difference between what you earn in foreign currencies and what you spend in foreign currencies. If you invoice in USD exclusively, your direct FX exposure may be low — but your competitive exposure may be high (your pricing relative to local alternatives changes as the dollar strengthens or weakens). If you invoice in foreign currencies, your exposure is direct and should be measured monthly.

Start by listing: which currencies do you receive revenue in? What is the average monthly value in each currency? Are any of those currency receipts matched by expenses in the same currency? The remaining unmatched flows are your net exposure.

Step 2: Decide your invoicing currency policy

Invoicing in USD is the simplest approach for a US-based exporter — it shifts the FX risk to the buyer. But in competitive markets, offering to invoice in local currency can be a genuine differentiator, particularly for large buyers who manage their own currency exposure and prefer not to take on yours.

The right answer depends on your market, your margins, and your operational capacity. What matters is that it is a deliberate decision, not a default.

Step 3: Separate your conversion into predictable and unpredictable flows

Most Florida exporters have a mix of predictable and unpredictable currency receipts. Regular buyers, subscription or retainer arrangements, and repeat orders create predictable flows that are ideal candidates for forward contracts. Spot or one-off orders are better handled as spot transactions.

Matching the right instrument to each flow type — forward contracts for predictable, spot with rate alerts for unpredictable — is the core of an effective exporter FX strategy.

Step 4: Build a rate benchmark into your pricing process

When you price an international order or tender, you are implicitly making an assumption about the exchange rate. Most Florida exporters use today’s spot rate as their pricing assumption. A better approach is to use a rate that reflects a margin of safety — typically 2–4% below spot — and to review your pricing assumptions quarterly against current market rates. This ensures that a currency move between pricing and payment does not compress your margin below acceptable levels.

Step 5: Review your FX cost annually

Once a year, Florida exporters should calculate your total FX cost: the difference between the rates you achieved across all currency conversions and the interbank rate at the time of those conversions. This number, expressed as a percentage of total foreign currency revenue, is your FX cost ratio. Industry-leading businesses typically achieve a cost ratio below 0.5%. Businesses using retail bank FX often see ratios of 1.5–2.5% or higher.

If you have never calculated this number, a Free FX Review with Nextpay Global will do it for you. We benchmark your current arrangements against the interbank rate and show you what your FX cost ratio is — and what it could be.

A note on Latin American markets

Florida’s geographic position makes Latin American markets a natural focus for many Florida exporters, particularly in the Tampa–Orlando corridor. It is important to note that Nextpay Global’s payment platform supports Mexico but does not currently cover most other Latin American countries. For businesses with significant LATAM payment flows outside Mexico, we will always be transparent about what our platform can and cannot do, and will help you find the right solution.