Of the total €81 billion import of clothing from 28 countries to the European Union, 77 per cent is from Asia. That is almost double of what came out of Asia just 10 years ago. As is already known when import increases, prices drop. In the last 10 years, clothing import from the EU grew €32 billion with €30 billion coming from Asia alone. Out of that €30 billion, 75 per cent was from China and Bangladesh. The low costs and high concentration of companies makes it increasingly interesting to import clothing from Asia.

Some countries even live off of the export: clothing represents 47 per cent of Bangladesh’s total export in 2015 and Cambodia (27 per cent) and Sri Lanka (17 per cent) also benefit from the clothing industry. The consumer also takes advantage of the low costs in Asia. In the last two years, prices have dropped nearly 4 per cent and the 2015 levels were lower on average than that 10 years ago. Prices are also at their lowest in the last 10 years. The peak was in 2007, when clothes were nearly 4 per cent more expensive than in 2015.