Baltic Export, Estonia, Good for Business, Markets and Companies, Textile

The total volume of textiles industry in constant prices exceeded the level of the year 2008 in 2011 and reached the level of 95% of the level of 2005. Although one major enterprise – Kreenholm – has left this sector, other companies were relatively successful in increasing their production volumes and fill in the gap on the market.

The share of exports in the sales of production output of the textiles industry has been high and reached 89% in 2011. The product portfolio of the textiles industry has also changed slightly; production of cotton yarn and cotton textiles has ceased and the statistics also does not account for production of linens and flax yarn. Instead, production of blankets and pillows has grown significantly, accounting for 70% of total exports of the textiles industry sector. The principal exports markets in 2011 were Finland, Sweden and France.

The volume of investments in the textile industry continued falling in 2011, by nearly 15% in comparison to the previous year. More than half of the investments involved machinery and equipment and 15% was spent on acquiring and renovating buildings and facilities.

The largest textile industry enterprises in Estonia are AS Wendre, AS Toom Tekstiil, Hilding Anders Baltic AS, AS Mistra-Autex and Qualitex AS.