Croatian apparel sector to benefit from EU accession

18 Jul '12

2 min read

The clothing sector of Republic of Croatia, situated at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean, would immensely benefit after its joining the EU next year.

On July 1, 2013, Croatia is scheduled to become the 28th member state of the European Union (EU). This inclusion would give Croatian export goods an open entry to the markets of the other EU states. The move would facilitate the country to strike deals and form joint ventures with companies based in EU states.

Textile and clothing items make up to 8.2 percent of Croatia's industrial exports and also account for five percent of Croatia's total imports from the 27 member states of EU.

With the EU membership, Croatia will have to follow all the technical guidelines laid by EU on clothing, labeling and analysis.

According to Dr. Mirjana Gambiroza Jukic, Secretary of the Association of the Textile and Clothing Industry of the Croatian Chamber of Economy, Croatia needs to improve its textile and apparel production process according to higher quality price brackets and to apply innovative ideas and knowledge, to take full advantage of the country’s EU accession.

Dr. Jukic added that companies from EU will be attracted to invest in Croatia’s textile and apparel sector due to the country’s cheap labor cost, which is about 30 to 70 percent lesser than its neighboring state Italy.

Moreover, the Government subsidizes up to 20 percent of the cost of start-up textile and clothing businesses in order to uplift the regional development.

Croatia has a total of 757 textile manufacturing units, out of which 714 are small companies, 37 medium-sized and six are large companies.

Despite the Croatian textile and apparel industry’s nose diving fortunes in the recent years with textile manufacturing output declining by 11 percent year-on-year in 2011, the foreign manufacturers have still managed to progress in Croatia.

Italian hosiery and beachwear company Calzedonia is doing good business in the country. Austrian company Boxmark, which specializes in car seat upholstery, has a manufacturing unit in the country and is Croatia's fourth largest exporter.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India