Interesting data! Poland is a mediator between Asia and the West

In 2020, Poland will become an intermediate country in clothing trade between Asia and Western Europe. Apparently, this situation was also maintained in 2021, Carolina Südzimir, an expert at PKO BP, told PAP.

As reported by PKO BP, clothing exports from Poland in 2017-2020 increased significantly by 64.9%, from nearly 4.6 billion euros in 2016 to just over 7.5 billion euros in 2020. And imports by 71.2 %. From 5.2 billion euros to nearly 9.0 billion euros, respectively. The report notes that, despite the spread of the epidemic in 2020, not only did the increasing trend observed in recent years fail to collapse, but strengthened significantly.

Poland seems to have become an intermediary country. We started importing a lot of clothes and then sending them for export. This can be seen especially in 2020, when production in Poland decreased

—Carolina Südzimir, the report’s author, an expert at PKO BP told PAP.

PKO BP report shows that clothing sales in Poland in 2020 decreased by 10.4%, but imports increased by up to 20%. In other large markets, a decrease in sales was accompanied by a decrease in imports.

In 2020, Polish companies entered supply chains as intermediaries between Asian suppliers and Western European beneficiaries. This can be seen in the results of exports from Poland, for example, in 2020, exports to the Netherlands increased by more than 85 percent, to Sweden also by 85 percent, and to Germany – by about 27 percent.

– said Carolina Südzimir.

In her opinion, one of the reasons for this increase in exports was the high activity of Polish sellers, who reacted to problems with sales in traditional channels due to closures by increasing online sales. The PKO BP report shows that the share of online sales rose to 31.4% in 2020. By 25% in 2019.

An additional factor that worked in favor of Polish companies was the fact that part of the deliveries could be made thanks to the railways connecting our country with Asia. In 2020, there were problems with delivery from Asian countries due to the closure of ports due to the epidemic and the shortage of containers.

It is possible that the railways received some deliveries, and thanks to intermodal transport – including rail deliveries to Poland and then the distribution of goods by cars – we were able to increase exports

– said a PKO BP expert.

According to the forecast of the report, in 2021 the value of clothing sales amounted to 10.6 billion euros, so it was still 11.2 percent. lower than it was before the pandemic. However, there is a possibility that our country has managed to maintain its position in the clothing brokerage.

It can be assumed that this highest position in the clothing trade was preserved. It should be remembered that the share of Poland in the international clothing trade increased in 2016-2020. There was a noticeable intensification in 2020, but its further increase is possible

– said Carolina Südzimir.

kk / PAP