Increased clothing import from Asia

The 28 countries in the European Union imported an astonishing 81 billion euros’ worth of clothing in 2016, with 77 % coming from Asia. That is almost double of what came out of Asia a mere 10 years ago.

Import increases, prices drop

Over the past 10 years, the EU clothing import grew 32 billion euro, with 30 billion coming from Asia. Out of that 30 billion, 75 % came from China and Bangladesh. The low costs and high concentration of companies makes it increasingly interesting to import clothing from Asia, according to the CBS results. Some countries even live off of the export: clothing represents an amazing 47 % of Bangladesh’ total export worth in 2015 and Cambodia (27 %) and Sri Lanka (17 %) also benefit from the clothing industry.

The consumer also takes advantage of the low costs in Asia: over the past 2 years, prices have dropped nearly 4 % and the 2015 levels were lower, on average, than 10 years ago. Prices are also at their lowest in the past 10 years. The peak was in 2007, when clothes were nearly 4 % more expensive than in 2015.