The Danish clothing provider was able to achieve a small plus in export in 2024. This emerges from current figures that the Dansk Mode & Textil (DM & T) industry association published on Monday at the start of the Copenhagen Fashion Week.
Accordingly, the industry’s export sales were 40.9 billion Danish crowns (5.5 billion euros) last year. This corresponded to an increase of one percent compared to 2023. In the first nine months of the year, exporter revenues were still four percent below the relevant previous year. Due to the relatively small home market, foreign business is traditionally particularly important for the Danish fashion companies because it is almost 70 percent of their total sales.
Germany remains the most important foreign market
By far the strongest abroad of the Danish textile companies remained Germany. The corresponding exports achieved a total value of 10.30 billion Danish crowns (1.4 billion euros) in 2024 and were thus able to easily outperform the previous year’s level of 10.25 billion crowns. In 2023, exports to Germany had dropped by nine percent.
Despite a decline in sales of four percent, Sweden took second place with 4.04 billion Danish crowns, in third place the Netherlands followed with an unchanged export turnover of 3.43 billion Danish crowns. The Danish fashion companies achieved growth in Poland (+10 percent), Norway (+1 percent), France (+2 percent) and Belgium (+5 percent), while export sales in Italy and Great Britain each decreased by one percent.
Geopolitical uncertainties shape the future
Michael Hillmose, who is responsible for international business and data analysis at DM&T, drew a positive balance of the past year in view of the recent upward trend. “As expected, both domestic sales and exports slowly began. But from July the picture changed, and exports attracted and grew by six percent compared to 2023 for the rest of the year, ”he said in a statement. “This gives hope for normalization in several of the important export markets, and hopefully this development will continue by 2025.”
At the same time, Hillmose emphasized that the current year should also be shaped by geopolitical uncertainties. The industry is currently expecting the decisions of the new US government with great excitement.