Export: if not now, when?

Export and Made in Italy have always been one an essential resource for the Italian economy. Over the years, in fact, they have played a crucial role as an accelerator of the growth and development of our entrepreneurial fabric, proving to be a fundamental engine for the competitiveness of the country system.

We have been saying this for several months and the data continue to bear witness to it: with the restrictions from Covid now behind us, Italian exports are, in this historic moment, stronger than ever.

Businesses on the peninsula must believe in the possibility of increasing one's turnover, exploring new markets and creating profits. There are many opportunities, most of the companies that are investing in exports obtain favorable returns.

It is not meant to be an ultimatum but certainly, as often happens in these situations, “first come, first served”. The market is extremely receptive and the request of the Made in Italy it continues to grow but this situation, sooner or later, will begin to slow down and only those who leave immediately will benefit fully.

The numbers of Italian exports (Istat data for April 2022):

– +5,8%: increase for Italian exports between December 2021 and February 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year;

– +22.7%: YoY export growth in February 2022, with a strong increase in sales both to the EU area (+24.0%) and to non-EU markets (+21.1%);

– Substances and chemicals Made in Italy have seen the greatest increase (+34,1%), followed by base metals and metal products (+24,4%) and from foodstuffs and drinks (+23,1%);

– On an annual basis, the countries that contributed most to the increase in Made in Italy exports were Spain (+33.3%), United States (+24.4%), Germany (21.3%) and France (+16.0%).

The record of Digital Export

We also remember how 2021 has been a year record for Made in Italy exports, that have exceeded the threshold of 500 billion euros, recording the highest level of exports ever observed for our country.

Digital played a decisive role in the recovery of the sale of products abroad, which grew by 15% compared to 2020 both in terms of consumer goods (B2C, Business to Consumer) and those intended for businesses (B2B, Business to Business).

The digital export of direct consumer goods (therefore through its own website, marketplace or private sales sites) or intermediary (through online retailers) touched the value of 15.5 billion euro last year, reaching a weight equal to 9% of total exports to Italy. The most important sector is the fashion, which with a value of 8.6 billion euros (+20% on 2020) holds a 56% share of the overall B2C digital export market.

In second place is the food & beverage, with 14% of the total, which continues its growth (+10%), but slows down after the previous year's exploit (+46% in 2020). On the third step of the podium is the sector of thefurniture, which with its value of 1.2 billion, equal to 7% of total online exports of consumer goods, marks an increase of 12% compared to 2020.

As for B2B digital export (through channels such as EDI or Web EDI, Extranet, Marketplace), whose incidence on total product exports is 28.3% in 2021, the value achieved is 146 billion euro, a figure even above pre-Covid levels (134 billion in 2019).

The supply chain with the best numbers is that of the automotive (33 billion in value and a weight of 22.6% on total B2B digital exports), which recorded a growth of 40%, almost doubling that of overall exports (+22.6%).

Then follow the textile and clothing (with an incidence on total B2B exports of 14.8%), mechanics (10.8%), large-scale consumption (6.9%), electrical material (4.8%) and electronics (3.3%). The only B2B sector with a negative trend in online exports is pharmaceuticals (3.1% of the market), which after the boom of 2020 (+66%) closed 2021 with a drop of 23%.