EUROSTAT for the period of January-April 2023 with a few analyses on European Union’s (EU) overall import from the world and top sourcing countries.
Based on the data of Eurostat, the apparel import of EU from the world has declined by 7.62% during the first four months of 2023 compared to the corresponding period of 2022 (from US$ 32.29 billion in January-April 2022 to US$ 29.83billion in January-April 2023). In terms of quantity (measured in kilogram), EU’s clothing import from the world also had a stiff downturn by 15.45%.
Among the top ten apparel-sourcing countries of EU, Vietnam and India have shown positive growth while EU’s import from other countries has declined significantly.
As far as EU’s apparel import from Bangladesh is concerned, it has declined by 6.25% in dollar value i.e. to US$ 7.06 billion January-April 2023 from US$ 7.53 billion in the corresponding period of 2022. Quantity wise, it has also declined by 12.48% during the mentioned period.
EUs import from China has dipped by 17.07% in dollar value and 21.05% in quantity. During January-April 2023 EU’s imports from Turkey, the 3rd largest apparel source, has declined by 13.68% in value term and 24.66% in quantity.
On the other hand, EU’s imports from India and Vietnam have increased by 0.45 % and 3.41% respectively in value terms. However, in terms of quantity, EU’s import from the both countries shown 8.17% and 7.26% decline respectively.
At the same time EU’s import from the other top sourcing countries such as Cambodia, Pakistan Morocco, Sri Lanka, Indonesia declined by 5.59%, 7.52%, 16.61%, 17.16% and 7.99% respectively in value terms.
If we look at the unit price (USD value/kg), EU’s cumulative unit price of import from Bangladesh has increased by 7.12% (from US$16.98 to US$ 18.19). While this reflects the higher cost of raw materials and other cost of production, it also signifies our progress toward higher price segment. Average unit prices of imports from other countries have also gone up during the mentioned period.
