In view of increasingly warmer winters, German foreign trade in skis and snowboards is weakening. In 2024, only 518,800 relevant winter sports items worth 71.7 million euros were imported, as the Federal Statistical Office announced shortly before the start of the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
That was a decrease of 29.8 percent, compared to just over 739,200 in 2014. To date, there have only been lower imports of a good 405,000 items in the Corona year 2021.
Exports are shrinking more slowly
Exports also fell during the period: by 18.8 percent to 523,100 pieces with a total value of 95.2 million euros. For the first time since the pandemic year of 2021, Germany exported more skis and snowboards than imported.
Most of the imports came from China (36.7 percent), Austria (24 percent) and Slovenia (8.2 percent). The main buyers for German skis and snowboards were France, Austria and the USA.
