svn: Can't create directory '/subversion/main/db/transactions/0-1.txn': Permission denied

I created a local subversion directory and I'm having problems. I tried checking in my first file with the following command:

svn ci TestCommenterParseFilter.java 

and I got the following error message

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Can't create directory '/export/svn/db/transactions/1-1.txn': Permission denied
svn: Your commit message was left in a temporary file:
svn:    '/export/speedplane/nutch-0.9/src/plugin/commenter/src/test/org/commenter/nutch/svn-commit.tmp'

Any suggestions?