Bad news from Brussels

For the past three days the Brussels Fashion Fair (BFF) has busily played host to a wide variety of fashion brands. The largely European contingency was enthusiastic and optimistic, despite negative sounds echoing from the press centre in the entrance hall during a presentation by Creamoda.

According to Creadmoda, the professional federation for the Belgian clothing industry, 2004 was a bad year for Belgian fashion. Local production declined, as did local investments and import and export. The trepidation with which local investments are approached can be explained by the uncertainty created by the abolishment of quotas per 1 January 2005.

Production is increasingly taking place abroad and Northern Africa finds itself having to make way for Asia. Particularly China is taking over as a global production centre, and not only for the Belgians.

Quite remarkable is the fact that the volumes of both import and export have climbed, while the value has continued to decline. Creamoda attributed this phenomenon to the decrease in prices of exported goods and the low labour costs of imported goods from Asia. Creamoda concluded that these developments will have negative consequences for the Belgian and European textile industry.