According to statistics from the Macedonian Bureau of Statistics, Macedonia’s total foreign trade dropped by 12.8% year-on-year from January to August 2015, of which total exports of clothing and textiles were US$362 million (US$465 million in the same period in 2014), a sharp decrease of 22.2% year-on-year.
On October 7, Macedonia’s Minister of Economy Nejiri convened a meeting of Macedonia’s major textile and clothing production and export enterprises to focus on the reasons for the decline in exports and how to deal with them. Nejiri emphasized that the textile and clothing manufacturing industry plays an important role in the Macedonian economy, as the number of employees in this sector accounts for more than 35% of the total number of employees in the country. According to statistics, Macedonia’s traditional clothing export markets to the UK, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Greece and other traditional clothing export markets have all experienced sharp declines. This sounds an alarm and must be taken seriously.
According to analysis, a major problem in the Macedonian textile and clothing industry is the massive loss of high-quality workers from domestic companies to foreign companies in the free economic zone. Representatives of participating companies also emphasized the need to simplify customs procedures and solve garbage storage and management problems. They also hoped that the government would encourage commercial banks to provide more favorable loan conditions. Macedonian clothing and textile exports drop sharply
