REUTERS
The European Union was the major buyer of Ukrainian-made clothes in 2015, accounting for 90.5% of clothes shipments from Ukraine to the tune of $525 million, according to the Europeiska Pravda online newspaper.
It cited data of state enterprise UkrPromZovnishEkspertyza, or the Ukrainian Industry Expertise (UEX), a leading company that studies Ukrainian and international markets, and prepares decisions on business development as well as industry and industrial policy research.
International trade in clothes grows by 4% per annum on the average, but the share of Ukraine on the international clothes market in the past five years has shrunk to 0.10% from 0.16%, the newspaper reported.
Almost 90% of Ukrainian exports were cooperation on a tolling basis. It was 88% in 2013 ($583 million) and 89% in 2014 ($566 million).
Outwear accounted for 64.3% ($285.6 million) of Ukrainian clothes exports and the share of underwear was 17.4%, or $77.4 million, UEX reported.
"In recent years, major buyers of clothes made in Ukraine are the European Union (90.5%, or $525 million) and Russia (5.6%, or $33 million). A trend towards a reduction in Russia's share in total exports amid the growth of the EU's share is noticeable now," UEX said.
Read alsoUkraine awaits WTO response on Russia's restrictions of farm produce transitMajor importers of Ukraine's clothes are Germany ($161 million), Hungary ($32 million), Italy ($31 million), Poland ($30 million), which all together accounted for almost 57% of exports from Ukraine in 2015.
Ukrainian clothes producers say that the most promising are European countries that not only import much but also demonstrate a considerable pace of growth of demand for imports.
Read alsoWorld Bank says Ukraine economy returns to positive growthAmong them are Luxembourg (+20% per annum), Poland (+15.4%), Latvia (+12.9%), Slovakia (+12.5%), Lithuania (+12.4%), Spain (+9.2%), Bulgaria (+9%), and the Netherlands (+8.1%).