The EU Member States imported 234 800 violins worth €15.7 million in 2018. The majority of these (82%, or 191 500 violins) came from non-EU Member States. The number of violins imported to the EU Member States was up 27% compared with 2013.
105 000 violins worth €23.3 million were exported by the EU Member States in 2018. Over half of these (52%, 55 100 violins) went to other EU Member States. This represents a 7% fall in EU Member States’ total violin exports compared with 2013.
United Kingdom imports over a third of violins
The United Kingdom imported 71 300 violins from non-EU Member States in 2018, accounting for 37% of total extra-EU imports of violins. This makes the United Kingdom by far the largest EU importer of violins from the rest of the world, ahead of Germany (31 300, 16%), followed by Italy (18 200, 9%), Spain (16 900, a little under 9%), Belgium (15 100, 8%) and France (9 100, 5%).
China - main origin of imported violins
Imports of violins from non-EU countries came mainly from China (188 500 violins, or 99% of extra-EU imports of violins). Most of the remaining extra-EU imports of violins came from seven countries: the United States (810 violins), Taiwan (670), Moldova (600), Nepal (240), Brazil (110), Japan (70) and India (60).
The source dataset is accessible here.
Romania - largest violin exporter
Romania exported 14 000 violins to non-EU Member States in 2018 (28% of extra-EU exports of violins). This makes Romania the largest EU exporter of violins to the rest of the world, closely followed by Denmark (12 200, 24%), ahead of Germany (6 400, 13%), the United Kingdom (5 000, 10%), Czechia (2 900, 6%), France (2 700, over 5%), Italy (2 500, 5%) and Belgium (1 800, 4%).
United States and South Korea - main destinations for exported violins
Almost half of EU violin exports went to two countries: the United States and South Korea (11 900 violins each, or 24% of extra-EU exports of violins). They were followed by Japan (6 700, 14%), Canada (2 900, 6%), Australia (2 300, 5%), Switzerland (2 100, 4%), Hong Kong (1 800, under 4%), China (1 700, 3%), Russia (1 600, 3%), Norway (1 200, 2%) and Serbia (870, under 2%).
Note: Due to quasi-transit trade, the adding of intra-EU trade and extra-EU trade may lead to double counting. An example of this would be violins imported from China via the Netherlands, where they are cleared by customs for free circulation, before being dispatched to Germany. This would lead to the same violins being counted as imports by both the Netherlands and Germany. More precisely, they would appear in the Netherlands' extra-EU imports from China and intra-EU exports to Germany and in Germany's intra-EU imports from the Netherlands.
This news is published on the occasion of World Violin Day (13 December).
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