According to Eurostat, in a data shared recently, the apparel imports of the EU Member States decreased by 14 per cent in value in 2020 as compared to 2019.
While the EU imported clothes were worth €69 billion in 2020 from non-EU Member States, EU exports of clothes to countries outside the EU were worth €30 billion in 2020.
Compared with 2019, exports recorded a 14 per cent drop in value, following a steady increase over the last decade (up by 64 per cent increase compared with 2010).
As far as imports are concerned, China remained the main origin of imported clothes. Eurostat further revealed that imports of clothes from non-EU countries came mainly from China (€21 billion, 30 per cent of total value), Bangladesh (€12 billion, 18 per cent) and Turkey (€8 billion, 12 per cent), followed by the United Kingdom (€4 billion, 6 per cent), India and Vietnam (each €3 billion, 4 per cent) and Cambodia (€2 billion, 4 per cent).
Germany was the largest importer of apparels in 2020 from non-EU Member States as almost €17 billion worth of clothes were imported by the country that stands at 25 per cent share of the total EU apparel import values from non-EU countries.
Germany was followed by Spain (€10 billion, 15 per cent) and France (almost €10 billion, 14 per cent).
In terms of exports, Italy remained the largest clothing exporter in the EU as it exported clothes worth €10 billion to non-EU Member States in 2020, which is a total of 33 per cent of total export done by EU outside EU countries.
Italy was followed by Germany (€5 billion, 17 per cent), Spain (€4 billion, 14 per cent) and France (almost €4 billion, 13 per cent).