Baltic Export, Estonia, Investments, Markets and Companies, Textile

The main factor was the weakness of the domestic market, where sales fell by nearly 17% in a year.

The development of the Estonian textiles industry depends mainly on competitiveness in foreign markets. The share of exports in 2013 was 87.5% and export volumes changed little. Last year, 219 million euros worth of goods were exported, which is 6% more than the year before. In recent years, the role of Finland and Sweden has fallen while exports of goods to Germany and Denmark have increased.

The number of employees in the textile industry declined in 2013 by 1%. Wage growth was slightly faster than the Estonian average, reaching almost 9%.

The status of the textiles industry in spring of 2014 was significantly more positive than in the previous year. The evaluations of companies were significantly improved in regard to both the export business as well as the entire orders, but more than a quarter of the sector's companies saw labour shortage as the restriction for production.