French leather exports continued to grow last year, although at a more moderate pace (+1%) than in previous years, while imports stabilized. 2025 is shaping up to be more challenging with new US tariffs and a Chinese market that is slow to recover.
Trade surplus: a word that has a pleasant ring to it, because it is relatively rare when it comes to the French economy.
However, the leather industry, “one of the four key sectors of French import-export” as Philippe Gilbert, Director of the Economic Observatory of the Alliance France Cuir, reminds us, is no stranger to achievement.
In the very latest review of foreign trade for the year 2024, which has just been published on the initiative of the Alliance France Cuir Observatory, the French Leather Industry once again proves its good health.
A trade surplus of 5.5 billion euros
“With imports stable at 13.7 billion euros and exports up slightly by 1% to 19.2 billion euros”, it ended the year ‘with a trade surplus of 5.5 billion euros’, Alliance France Cuir announced in a press release. The comparison with France, which “ended the year with a trade deficit of -81 billion euros” is therefore flattering.
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Read also > The French leather industry navigates between challenges and opportunities in 2024
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