Poland becomes world's sixth-largest apparel exporter with 3.1% share, PKO BP says

Poland enters the global top six

Poland exported clothing worth 15.2 billion euros in 2025, taking sixth place among the world's apparel exporters with a 3.1 percent share of global trade, according to an analysis by PKO Bank Polski based on data from the Statista portal. The bank's analysts said the result lifts Poland three places compared with 2024, in findings reported by the Polish news agency PAP and the trade portal dlahandlu.pl.

The country also improved its standing as a buyer. Poland ranked eighth among global apparel importers with a 3.9 percent share, up from ninth place in 2024. On both sides of the trade balance, its position is now higher than the size of its domestic manufacturing base alone would suggest.

China leads exports, the United States leads imports

China remained the largest apparel exporter in 2025 with 26.6 percent of the global market, a share no other supplier comes close to. The United States was the largest importer, accounting for 16.9 percent of world purchases. Total global apparel exports exceeded 484.2 billion euros last year, of which Europe supplied 150.2 billion euros.

• Global apparel exports: more than 484.2 billion euros, with Europe at 150.2 billion euros
• China's export share: 26.6 percent; Poland's share: 3.1 percent
• Largest importer: the United States with 16.9 percent; Poland eighth with 3.9 percent
• Polish apparel exports: 15.2 billion euros

The ranking places Poland ahead of larger manufacturing economies on the export side, even though most of the goods leaving the country were produced elsewhere.

A 1.7 trillion euro consumer market

Global apparel sales rose 3 percent in 2025 to more than 1.7 trillion euros, a level 30 percent above 2021, PKO BP said, citing Statista. Europe accounted for 474 billion euros of that value and Poland alone for 15.7 billion euros. Women's wear is the single largest segment, with more than 52 percent of the market.

Non-luxury products make up 94 percent of total global sales, which the bank's experts said points to “the key importance of the mass segment for the development of the industry”. By 2030 the volume of apparel sold worldwide is expected to exceed 200 billion items, which the analysts described as confirmation of the continued high scale of clothing purchases across the world.

Re-export, not domestic sewing

PKO BP experts stressed that Poland exports a relatively small quantity of clothing actually manufactured in the country — mainly underwear, suits and workwear — while most shipments are re-exports of garments made in Asian countries. “Poland holds an important position in world apparel trade, and this is not linked solely to the size of domestic production,” they wrote, pointing to a market where sewing plants operate alongside firms engaged in design, trading, distribution and the sale of goods manufactured abroad. Most clothing exported from Poland is made in Asia or in South-Eastern Europe.

Domestic manufacturing continues to contract. According to Statistics Poland (GUS) data cited by the bank, the value of sold production in the apparel manufacturing division fell 7.5 percent in constant prices in 2025, to 5.3 billion zlotys. PKO BP put the difference between apparel export value and domestic producers' revenues at about 1.33 billion euros for 2025, attributing it to Poland's strong position as a logistics hub for the European market.