For the first time in 10 years, imports of all kinds of clothing into the European Union dropped in 2009. They fell by 3.8 percent to €57.28 billion. As noted in a Textiles Intelligence report, the drop follows a big decline in growth rates, which went down from 12.8 percent for 2006 to 2.5 percent in 2008. By volume, imports dropped by 6.8 percent to 4.25 million tons.
The recession was obviously the cause of the decline, as customers tightened their belts and retailers reduced their orders, to avoid having unsold inventory. Average prices actually rose, though, hitting the highest level since 2002 at €13.48 per kilogram. Eight of the EU’s top 10 main suppliers increased their prices: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Vietnam. However, currency exchange rates also affected prices.
For the first two months of 2010, statistics indicated that imports may have dropped even further. At best, they may have remained stagnant. The EU was affected by the Greek debt crisis, and it looked like other Eurozone countries were battling increasing debt.
The poor economies in Europe and the U.S. were felt in textile-producing Asian countries. In many of them, investments in machinery fell sharply in 2009. However, some countries adjusted their export targets to make up the difference. India’s textile and clothing industry, for example, increased exports to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Indonesia focused on its domestic market.
As noted in a sister publication of ours, Shoe Intelligence, total imports of all kinds of footwear fell last year by 8.1 percent in volume to 2,233 million pairs, but their total value dropped by only 3.0 percent to €11.64 billion because the average price went up by 5.5 percent to €5.21 per pair. Prices increased by 8.1 percent for leather shoes, 1.5 percent for canvas shoes and 16.0 percent for synthetic and rubber shoes.
