The clothing market offers opportunities for investors and marketers, highlights ICEX, the body that promotes exports from Spain.
In total, the value of the production of children’s and adult clothing in Mexico in 2019 was 8,262 million dollars.
According to data published in the latest collection of sectoral and regional studies of the clothing industry prepared by INEGI and CANAIVE, the clothing industry ranked 13th among the most important manufacturing economic activities in 2018, with 2.4% of the Manufacturing GDP.
In particular, the 10 states that represent 78.9% of production are: Mexico City (24.5%), State of Mexico (19.4%), Puebla (8.7%), Jalisco (4.5%), Guanajuato (4.1%), Nuevo León (4.1%), Querétaro (3.6%), Yucatán (3.6%), Aguascalientes (3.2%) and Durango (3.2 percent).
ICEX exposed in a recent analysis that Mexico exported $ 4.029 billion in clothing in 2019. In recent years, the gap between exports and imports has narrowed over the past five years. The trade surplus in 2019 amounted to $ 81 million.
Clothing market
According to data from the Internet Tariff Information System of the Mexican Ministry of the Economy, Mexican clothing exports were highly concentrated, both in value and volume in 2019.
The main trading partner, the United States, absorbed 93.1% of exports in value and 85.8% in volume.
The second commercial partner was Canada, with 1.9% in value and 1.5% in volume. Spain has not been a very important trading partner in this sector: Mexican exports to Spain only accounted for 0.15% in value and 0.10% in volume.
Mexico has a population of 126, .2 million inhabitants (2019). The population under 15 years old represented 25.3% in 2018. Despite the fact that the proportion of people under 15 years old went from 27.5 to 25.3% from 2014 to 2018, it still represents a significant group of the population.
According to STATISTA data, sales of children’s clothing in Mexico amounted to $ 5,608 million in 2019.
Children’s sector
It should be noted that sales have increased every year during the last five years; growth in this period was 36.2%, always according to the ICEX analysis.
The increase was greater in value than in volume. This is because, despite the fact that the birth rate in Mexico is decreasing and couples with a high educational level are postponing fatherhood, a large part of Mexican women are entering the world of work after having children. This increases household income and increases spending on children’s clothing.
It should be noted that Mexico suffers from fairly high economic inequality. Kantar’s Fashion Panel study identified a group of consumers, «the fashionistas.» This group belongs to a medium-high socioeconomic level, represents 20% of households and accounts for 57% of spending in the fashion sector. 20% of their spending is dedicated to the categories of junior, children’s and baby clothing.
