Fruther problem with importing photo at same size

Now that I've learned to isolate part of a photo using the mat, when I exported what I cut out it was tiny. My original photo was thousands of pixels wide. It reduced the cut out area exported to about 200 x 300 pixels which was a tenth of the size. I read a recent post on importing at same size using the utilities menu and clicking the last bitmap option to import at same dpi, so I did that using another photo so the utilities menu would show, then closed that photo and imported my photo again. But when I exported it to jpg it was tiny again. I checked to see the option in the utilites menu was still set. Is there a limit to picture size? I like to work with large photos so they print well as giclees and photographs. Any clarification as to why I can't import and export at the full size would be appreciated. Am I having a problem because the dpi of the original is 72 dpi?

the default export is 96dpi, so that will affect the size [but you can change this on export]

bit confused here - a cut out is going to be smaller than the original isn't it ?

one further thought - when you have imported your photo and selected it - check on the program status line [bottom left] what dpi the program has imported it at