Its main export destinations are Italy, Austria, Germany, Slovakia and France. Romania’s footwear exports stood at $1.026 billion last year, down from $1.09 billion in 2015.
The five markets in Western Europe get about 85% of the total exports. Italy alone accounts for 51%. Still, the reliance on Italy, a country known as both a manufacturer and a major consumer, has lessened in the last few years although the country remains Romania’s main partner on this segment.
“Romania’s exports dropped 14% in volume and 25% in value in the past two years due to the consumer spending on the Italian market,” World Footwear analysts say in the 2017 yearbook. In 2014, Romania’s exports stood at almost $1.4 billion, an all-time high also reached in 2011 and the last two years of economic boom, 2007 and 2008.
Romania’s footwear exports were at their lowest in a decade last year, even worse than in 2009.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristecu)