Clothing imports into the EU fell in value by 3.8% to EUR57.28bn (US$79.59bn) in 2009. This was the first decline in over ten years, and followed a slowdown in growth from 12.8% in 2006 to just 2.5% in 2008.

Imports also fell in volume terms, by 6.8% to 4.25m tons, according to the latest research from Textile Outlook International. Again this decline was the first in more than ten years.

The drop in imports was due largely to the recession in the EU. This affected consumer spending, and retailers and other buyers cut back on their foreign orders in order to avoid being left with unsold goods.

Nonetheless, despite the weaker economy, the average price of clothing imports rose in 2009 for the first time in three years. Indeed, at EUR13.48 per kg, the average import price was the highest since 2002.

In fact, eight of the EU's top ten clothing supplying countries increased their prices - namely Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Vietnam.

The rise in the average import price in 2009 may have been partly due to currency exchange rate movements.

Between 2008 and 2009 the euro depreciated against the US dollar, thus making imports priced in dollars more expensive in euro terms. This reversed a six-year period of currency appreciation between 2002 and 2008 when the euro gained in value against the US dollar almost every year.

For 2010, data for the first two months of the year suggest that imports will decline even further in the year as a whole as buyers continue to place smaller orders in these times of uncertainty. At best, imports could remain stable.

During the first few months of 2010 the EU market was still subdued due to the Greek debt crisis and there were signs that other countries within the euro zone were under threat from increasing debt.

Reflecting this, the value of the euro depreciated against the US dollar by 18.0% between November 2009 and May 2010 and this will have made imports relatively more expensive for EU buyers.

The poor economic situation in the EU - which has also been evident in the US - has had a knock-on effect in Asian producing countries.

Investment in machinery fell sharply in 2009 in several Asian countries. Indeed, in the case of spinning machinery, deliveries of short staple spindles, long staple spindles and open-end rotors to the industry in Asia as a whole all fell at double digit rates.

Having said that, production in Asia fared slightly better as industries targeted other export markets in order to maintain the momentum in their exports.

In India, for example, the textile and clothing industry increased its exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia - India's third and fifth largest markets - by 20.6% and 17.1% respectively in the year ending 30 March 2009.

The industry in Indonesia - which is highly dependent on EU and US markets - turned to the domestic market to offset declines in its exports. In fact, total retail sales of clothing in Indonesia increased by 37.2% during 2009.

In Thailand the industry managed to increase its textile and clothing exports to several other markets in Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries during 2009 - as well as to China - as exports to the EU and the US fell sharply.

And in Vietnam, exports to India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea all rose at double digit rates. That said, clothing production fell by 16.2% while output of cotton textiles declined by 12.8%.

Despite the recent fall in foreign demand, albeit modest, the Vietnamese textile and clothing industry has set fairly ambitious export targets for the next decade. In particular, it aims to sell exports worth US$10-12bn in 2010, US$14-16bn by 2015 and US$20-22bn by 2020.

The following reports are all found in issue No 145 of Textile Outlook International:

• Global Textile and Apparel Sourcing - The Views of Four Brands
• World Textile and Apparel Trade and Production Trends: South Asia and South-East Asia
• Survey of the European Fabric Fairs for Spring/Summer 2011
• World Markets for Textile Machinery: Part 1 - Yarn Manufacture
• Trends in EU Textile and Clothing Imports