Market evolution: Used clothing and accessories (CN 6309) — 2015–2025

Introduction

The EU is one of the world's largest exporters of second-hand clothing, channelling collected used garments and textiles predominantly towards Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. CN code 6309 covers worn clothing and accessories, blankets, household linen and similar textile articles showing appreciable wear, presented in bulk or bales. Over the 2015–2025 period, the EU maintained a large and persistent trade surplus in this product, yet the aggregate dynamics reveal a market under considerable structural transformation. Export volumes grew substantially while unit values fell sharply; traditional trade corridors weakened and new ones emerged; and the internal geography of EU exports shifted markedly as Germany ceded ground to southern and eastern member states. This report examines these three overarching trends in detail.

1. Volume Growth Masked by a Steep Erosion of Unit Values

The EU's export surplus remained large but narrowed

Throughout the period, the EU recorded a substantial trade surplus in CN 6309. In 2015 the surplus stood at €730 million; by 2025 it had fallen to €622 million, a decline of 14.8%. The surplus peaked at €795 million during the interval, suggesting that the erosion accelerated in the most recent years. Exports consistently dwarfed imports — in 2025, exports (€811 million) were roughly 4.3 times the value of imports (€189 million) — but the gap has been closing.

Source: General Overview

Export volumes rose steadily even as revenues contracted

The most striking feature of the decade is the divergence between export volume and export value. EU exporters shipped 23.3% more tonnes in 2025 than in 2015, yet received 10.2% less in revenue. The implied unit export price fell from €869 per tonne to €633 per tonne — a 27.2% decline over the period. This indicates that the growth in volume was driven partly by lower-quality bales or by destination markets exercising greater bargaining power. The data shows that export volume peaked at 1,325 kt in one of the intervening years while value peaked at €1,024 million, suggesting that 2019 or 2020 may have represented a cyclical high before the price correction deepened.

Import prices declined less steeply, reflecting a different composition

On the import side, the EU also experienced rising volumes (+17.6%) combined with more modest price erosion (−7.3%). Imports of used clothing into the EU are structurally more expensive per tonne (€1,111/t vs. €633/t for exports in 2025), which likely reflects the fact that much of what the EU imports — largely from the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway — consists of higher-value sorted items destined for resale within the EU rather than bulk bales for re-export. The narrower price decline on the import side (−7.3% vs. −27.2% for exports) suggests that premium-grade used clothing has held its value better than the commodity-grade bales that dominate EU exports.

2. A Geographic Reorientation: Traditional Corridors Weaken, New Routes Strengthen

Export destinations shifted towards the Middle East and West Africa

The top export partners reveal a marked geographic reorientation over the period. Three destination groups stand out:

Declining traditional routes:

Growing or emerging routes:

Source: Top partners by value

Tunisia experienced the steepest decline among the top seven (−48.6%), possibly linked to growing domestic recycling capacity and tighter import regulations. Ukraine's decline (−28.1%) aligns with the disruption caused by the armed conflict from 2022 onward, although the country remained a sizeable destination. By contrast, the UAE nearly doubled its intake to become the single largest destination by 2025 (€61 million), likely serving as a re-export hub for the Gulf and East Africa. Pakistan and Togo also posted solid gains, reinforcing the West African and South Asian dimensions of the trade.

EU imports remained dominated by European neighbours but showed dramatic bilateral shifts

The top import partners were overwhelmingly European. The United Kingdom remained the largest single source, though its share fell from €94 million to €85 million (−9.6%). Switzerland, the second-largest source, saw a sharp contraction from €30 million to €16 million (−47.0%).

The most dramatic shift on the import side was the surge of the UAE as a source of used clothing into the EU, rising from just €1.1 million in 2015 to €7.2 million in 2025 — an increase of 532.5%. This likely reflects re-import flows or the UAE's role as a global sorting hub. Morocco also rose sharply (+170.1%), potentially connected to near-shoring of textile sorting and recycling activities.

Volatility was highest with the least traditional partners

Analysis of the coefficient of variation across partners confirms that trade with newer or smaller partners was far more volatile. Imports from China showed the highest CV (1.82), followed by Morocco (1.35) and the UAE (0.72) on the import side. On the export side, Morocco (0.63) and the UAE (0.41) also exhibited elevated volatility, whereas Cameroon (0.09) and Tunisia (0.11) — despite their declining volumes — maintained relatively stable year-on-year flows. This pattern suggests that while new corridors are growing rapidly, they have not yet matured into predictable, recurring trade relationships.

Specific price shocks clustered in 2022

The detected shock events show that three of the most abnormal price movements occurred around 2022. The most severe was a price shock in exports to Melilla (+275% shift, abnormality score of 407.9), likely driven by a compositional change in a very small-volume flow. More economically significant was a 45.4% price spike in imports from Switzerland in 2022, which at 17% of import value represented a material distortion — possibly linked to post-COVID supply tightening or shifts in sorting-house pricing. A concurrent +12.5% price shock in exports to Cameroon (10.3% of export value) also stood out. These 2022 events are consistent with the broader inflationary and logistics disruptions that affected global trade that year.

3. Internal Redistribution: Germany Declines as Southern and Eastern Members Gain Ground

Germany's export share was nearly halved

Among EU member states, the most dramatic internal shift was Germany's fall from the top exporting position. In 2015, Germany exported €213 million worth of CN 6309 — far more than any other member state. By 2025, this had fallen to €108 million (−49.6%), dropping Germany below both Poland and the Netherlands in the ranking.

Poland held roughly steady in absolute terms (€105M → €107M) and thus moved up in relative ranking. Spain posted the strongest growth among the top seven (+40.4%), rising from €49 million to €69 million, and France edged up modestly (+3.6%). Belgium also experienced a sharp decline (−31.4%), losing nearly as much proportionally as Germany.

The Netherlands emerged as the dominant EU import hub

On the import side, the most striking change was the Netherlands' ascent from a negligible €2 million in 2015 to €55 million in 2025 — an increase of over 2,500%. This made the Netherlands the largest EU importer of CN 6309 by 2025, overtaking Poland (which fell from €39 million to €20 million, −50.1%), Italy (−51.4%) and Hungary (−53.0%). The Netherlands' surge is likely related to the port of Rotterdam's role as a logistics hub and the possible establishment of large-scale sorting and grading facilities in the country.

Import concentration fell sharply while export diversification held steady

The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for concentration confirms the broadening of import sources. Import HHI by value fell from 3,462 to 2,475 (−28.5%), moving the market from a moderately concentrated structure towards a more competitive one. Export HHI was already very low (326 in 2015, 308 in 2025), reflecting the inherently fragmented nature of second-hand clothing export destinations across dozens of countries. However, export HHI by volume rose from 422 to 706 (+67.3%), indicating that while the EU exported to many partners in value terms, volume was increasingly concentrated in a handful of large-bale destinations.

Central and Eastern European members showed the strongest specialisation

The RSCA-based specialisation index for 2025 reveals that Central and Eastern European members were the most specialised exporters:

Bulgaria stands out with an RCA of 13.0, indicating an extremely strong comparative advantage in used clothing exports relative to its overall trade profile. This is consistent with the well-established role of sorting and recycling firms in Bulgaria serving Western European collection networks. At the other end, Luxembourg (RSCA −1.0), Malta (−0.94) and Greece (−0.78) showed no meaningful specialisation in this product.

Conclusion

The EU's trade in used clothing and accessories (CN 6309) over 2015–2025 tells a story of structural change beneath apparent stability. The EU maintained a large and persistent trade surplus throughout, but that surplus narrowed by nearly 15% as the explosive growth in export volume (+23.3%) was more than offset by a 27% decline in unit export prices. Geographically, the traditional export corridors to North and West Africa weakened — Tunisia and Cameroon both saw significant value declines — while the United Arab Emirates emerged as the single largest destination, and West African routes through Togo and Pakistan strengthened. On the import side, the Netherlands underwent a remarkable transformation from a marginal player to the EU's largest importer, while the United Kingdom and Switzerland — the historical main sources — saw their shares erode. Within the EU, Germany's once-dominant export position was halved, Spain and Poland gained ground, and Central Eastern European members like Bulgaria consolidated their role as highly specialised exporters. Looking ahead, the continued decline in export unit prices raises questions about the long-term viability of collection and sorting operations, while the growing volatility of newer trade routes suggests that the geographic diversification of EU used clothing trade remains a work in progress.