China has become the main supplier of French clothing
According to figures released by the French Garment Industry Federation, France imports nearly 7 billion euros of clothing every year, 6.8 billion euros in 2001, 6.9 billion euros in 2002, and 6.85 billion euros in 2003; The year was 3.3 billion euros, 3.5 billion euros in 2002, and 3.36 billion euros in 2003; the French clothing import and export trade deficit was 3.4 billion euros in 2002 and 3.5 billion euros in 2003. The unfavorable factors for French clothing exports in recent years are mainly the continuous growth of the exchange rate of the euro against the US dollar.
Among the top 10 importing countries, China has become the main supplier of French clothing. According to statistics in 2002, French imported clothing totaled 6.941 billion euros, China ranked first with 1.444 billion euros; Tunisia second with 906 million euros; Morocco third with 726 million euros; Italy No. Fourth, 574 million euros; India fifth; Turkey sixth; Romania seventh; Belgium eighth; Spain ninth; Germany tenth. In 2003, France imported 6.85 billion euros of clothing, a decrease of 1%, of which 1.7 billion euros were imported from EU countries and 5 billion euros were imported from other countries. The ranking of importing countries in 2003 was still China's first, with 1.608 billion euros; Tunisia was second, with 1.083 billion euros; Morocco was third, with 898 million euros; Italy was fourth, with 985 million euros.
Calculated by import volume, the clothing with the largest import volume in France is (statistics in 2001): trousers (1.365 billion euros), men's shirts (514 million euros), coats (474 million euros) and tops (474 million euros). .29 billion euros). Calculated by import volume, France imports the most clothing in order: trousers (150 million pieces), bras (79 million pieces), men's shirts (70 million pieces), women's shirts (44 million pieces) and jeans (42 million pieces). million pieces).
The European Union is the main market for French clothing exports
French clothing exports are mainly oriented to EU countries. In 2003, the main exporting countries were ranked in order of Belgium, Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and the United States.
The export of French clothing, if calculated by export value, the clothing with the largest export value is (statistics in 2001): trousers (401 million euros), bras (259 million euros), tops (155 million euros) and coats (149 million euros), etc.; if calculated by export volume, the clothing with the largest export volume is tops (66 million pieces), bras (37 million pieces), pants (27 million pieces) and blouses (9 million pieces). pieces) and dresses (9 million pieces).
Sino-French clothing trade flourishes
At present, the average French clothing import tariff is 9%. The clothing trade between China and France, especially the import of Chinese clothing to France, is increasing year by year. According to French customs statistics, France imported 619 million euros (4.025 billion francs) of various clothing from China in 2000, accounting for 10% of its total import value; 1.369 billion euros in 2001, accounting for 11% of the total import value. .19%; 1.444 billion euros in 2002, accounting for 13.28%. 1.608 billion euros in 2003, accounting for 15%, ranking first among importing countries.
The export of French clothing to China has also increased greatly in the past three years. 6.2 million euros in 2002, an increase of nearly 50%; about 7.4 million euros in 2003, accounting for 13% of China's imported clothing, ranking second among EU countries (the first is Italy, accounting for 50%, about 28 million euros) .
At present, in the French clothing market, traces of Chinese production can be found everywhere, from world-renowned French high-end fashion to mid-to-low-end mass clothing. However, there are not many clothing marked with Chinese brands or MADE IN CHINA, and most of them are processed by foreign brands or produced as OEM for stores, and the products are at a medium level.
Prospects for China's exports to France are both happy and worrying
There is still great potential for Chinese clothing to be exported to the French market. Judging from the two annual clothing sales in France, the French people's enthusiasm for buying clothes is still undiminished, and the market is far from saturated. In addition, according to the French Garment Industry Federation, due to the high cost of French garment production, French garment enterprises are decreasing year by year, and front-line production workers are reducing by an average of 12% per year. It is expected that in order to meet market demand, France will continue to expand clothing imports. At present, Chinese clothing only accounts for about 15% of the total French clothing imports, and the market share is not large, so there is still a lot of room for development.
In terms of imports, France has not yet imposed restrictions on technology, safety, and access to Chinese clothing products. However, with the cancellation of quotas, the French clothing industry has strongly anticipated the export offensive of Chinese clothing products to France. For this reason, the French clothing industry not only requires the EU to strengthen the monitoring of the quantity and price of Chinese clothing imports, so as to imitate the United States and take sanctions against Chinese products at any time, but also actively participates in the construction of a free circulation zone for textiles in the EU's Mediterranean region. The German and Italian garment industries have signed a cooperation agreement to jointly take action against the impact of Chinese garment imports.
At the same time, the French government is also actively taking measures to increase loans to small and medium-sized garment enterprises and reduce taxes on garment enterprises, so as to encourage garment manufacturers to stay in the country.
French local clothing production declines year by year
The production capacity of the French garment industry has been declining year by year. In 2001, the French local garment production decreased by 11%; in 2002, it decreased by 20.1%; in 2003, it decreased by 20%; At present, 70% of the clothes sold in the French market are imported from abroad.
The hourly wage of workers in the French garment industry is US$15.93 (statistics in 2002), ranking seventh in the world's textile industry (lower than Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands and Germany). The total wages of workers has accounted for 60% of the cost of garment production. Due to the high labor cost, many textile and garment production enterprises have partially or completely moved abroad. Pants, shirts and underwear that are 100% French can no longer be found in France, unless they are luxury products.
At present, there are 5,900 garment manufacturing enterprises in France, of which 5,043 are small enterprises with less than 20 workers, only 8 large enterprises with more than 500 employees, and the remaining more than 800 are mainly medium-sized enterprises with 20 to 250 employees. The sources of turnover of the French clothing industry, if classified by clothing category, 42% come from women's clothing; 20% from underwear; 16% from men's clothing; other clothing and accessories account for 14%; tailor-made 4%; work clothes 3%; Leather clothing accounted for 1%.
French consumers are stylish and practical
The French are known for their attention to clothing and fashion. Regardless of men, women, old or young, everyone is well-dressed and well-matched. In recent years, due to the popularity of simple style, French people's dress has become simple and casual, but new fashion is still revealed in the casual.
According to market analysis, French people are more and more interested in price when buying clothes, and cheap and high-quality clothes are often the most favored by consumers. The second is to attach importance to clothing brands. 77% of French consumers aged 18 to 35 believe that brands are the first guarantee of clothing quality. As for which country the clothing is made in, there is no big difference between the quality of the clothing, especially in the minds of young consumers, who think that this is just a different region representing the global production of clothing.
According to the official figures provided by the French Garment Industry Federation, the clothing with the largest sales volume in the French market is: underwear (280 million pieces), pullovers (110 million pieces), trousers (95 million pieces), baby clothes ( 87 million) and men's and women's shirts (65 million). Prices on the French clothing market have dropped slightly in recent years due to the massive import of cheap clothing from Asia. According to statistics, in 2003, the price of French clothing dropped by an average of 1%, which led to a slight increase of 0.5% in the purchase of clothing in the French market.
In terms of clothing sales channels, the French prefer to go to clothing chain stores with an area of less than 400 square meters. These small clothing chain stores account for 22.4% of the French clothing sales market. Followed by independent clothing stores, accounting for 19.6%, large and super large supermarkets accounted for 14.7%, large specialty stores accounted for 12.2%, mail order companies accounted for 8.4%, sports equipment stores accounted for 7.2%, Large department stores accounted for 6.7%, other stores accounted for 5.1%, and general markets accounted for 3.7%. The sales form of the factory store is very popular in France. Because the factory store mainly sells brand-name clothes that were not sold in the previous season, or are overstocked and unsalable, the price is much lower than that of the season, so it attracts a large number of people looking for cheap brand-name goods consumers. The turnover of factory stores has increased by 13 million euros every year, from 305 million euros in 1996 to 655 million euros today, which is equivalent to 24.1% of the French clothing and footwear expenditure. Therefore, the French government plans to build 10 new factory stores in the next few years. It is expected that the sales channels of French clothing will shift to direct selling factory stores and large supermarkets in the future.
