Record number of shirts entering the Netherlands

Slightly more than half the imports of cotton T-shirts and T-shirts are destined for the Dutch market. The remaining part goes abroad as re-export. Almost no cotton shirt is produced in the Netherlands. In the first eight months of 2018, approximately 110 million shirts available for home use (by both households and businesses), slightly less than in 2006. In twenty years this number has more than doubled.

There were all of 2017 129 million shirts available for the Dutch market which is almost 8 per capita on average. In 1998 there were still 4 per Dutchman.

Import price slightly over twenty years ago

In 2017 came 91 million shirts directly from Bangladesh to the Netherlands. It is therefore the most important supplier. Other major producers of shirts are China (21 million parts delivered), India and Turkey (both 17 million parts).

The average price of imports per shirt in 2018 is more than 3 euros. Shirts produced in Bangladesh are priced at approx. 2 euros considerably cheaper. Also the price of shirts from China (approx. 2,50 euros) was below average. Shirts from India (approx. 3,20 euros) are around the middle and Turkish shirts (approx. 5 euros) were more expensive than the average.

Bangladeshi shirts have grown in the last 20 years 60 cents in the price, while the average import price of a shirt in 2018 approx 20 cents higher than in 1998.

China main production clothing supplier

Other clothes were also imported more this year. That was in the first eight months of 2018 7.6 billion euro, 8 percent more than a year earlier. More than half of this comes directly from Asia to the Netherlands.

Netherlands achieved over 2017 1.9 billion china clothing euro. Bangladesh occurred 1.0 billion euro on clothes. The Netherlands imported more shirts and pants from Bangladesh than from China. Other clothes, such as sweaters, dresses, shirts, clothes and coats, came more often from China. Turkey is at three (0.6 billion) as a supplier of clothing outside the European Union. Then India and Vietnam (both 0.3 billion). The import value of China and Bangladesh has increased more than six-fold in the last twenty years. Imports from Vietnam more than quadrupled. Imports from Turkey and India almost doubled.

In addition to importing directly from Asia, clothing enters the Netherlands through other European Union countries. Some of these clothes were also produced in Asia. Statistics The Netherlands has no figures for this "indirect" import from Asia to the Netherlands.

The clothing industry is much more important to Bangladesh than to China

The export of clothing is an important pillar for Bangladesh's economy. This was in 2016 82 percent of all Bangladeshi export clothing. Bangladesh has specialized since 1980 as a clothing producer.

For other countries that export larger clothing, the garment industry has a smaller share of exports. This is in China. 8 percentin India 7 percentIn Turkey 11 percent and in Vietnam 14 percent. In these countries, clothing participation has gradually declined since the 1990s.

Clothing is also leading in Dutch imports from Bangladesh. In 2017 it was 82 percent of total Bangladesh clothing imports. This is much more than with imports from China (5 percent), India (11 percent), Turkey (21 percent) and Vietnam (6 percent).