The European Union (EU) produced candles worth €1 638 million in 2018. This represents an 11% increase in the value of the EU’s candle production compared with 2013.
Poland was the EU’s biggest candle producer, accounting for €619 million worth (38%) of all candles produced in the EU in 2018, followed by Germany and Italy (each €164 million or 10% of candles).
The source dataset is accessible here.
In terms of trade, the EU Member States imported candles worth €1 572 million in 2018, just over three quarters of which came from other EU Member States (77%, or €1 211 million). The value of total candle imports of the EU Member States increased 21% compared with 2013.
€1 470 million of candles were exported by the EU Member States, the vast majority of which went to other EU Member States (87%, or €1 284 million). This represents a 16% increase in the value of EU Member States’ total exports compared with 2013.
United Kingdom imports a third of candles
The United Kingdom imported €121 million worth of candles from non-EU Member States in 2018, representing 33% of total extra-EU imports of candles by value. This makes the United Kingdom by far the largest EU importer of candles from the rest of the world, ahead of the Netherlands (€53 million, 15%) and Germany (€48 million, 13%), followed by France (€34 million, 9%) and Italy (€22 million, 6%).
China - main origin of imported candles
Imports of candles from non-EU countries came mainly from China (€237 million, or 66% of extra-EU imports of candles), the United States (€61 million, 17%) and Vietnam (€24 million, 7%), followed by India (€16 million, 4%), Switzerland and Ukraine (each €4 million, 1%), Dominican Republic (€3 million, 1%), Thailand and Hong Kong (each €2 million, 1%).
The source dataset is accessible here.
A fifth of EU candles exported from Poland
Among EU Member States, Poland exported candles worth €38 million to non-EU Member States in 2018 (21% of extra-EU exports of candles by value). This makes Poland the largest EU exporter of candles to the rest of the world, ahead of Germany (€26 million, 14%) and France (€25 million, 13%), followed by Denmark (€15 million, 8%), Sweden and the United Kingdom (each €13 million, 7%), and Italy (€12 million, 6%).
Switzerland and Norway - main destinations for exported candles
Almost two-thirds of EU candle exports went to three countries: Switzerland (€43 million, or 23% of extra-EU exports of candles), Norway (€41 million, 22%) and the United States (€34 million, 18%), followed by Russia (€9 million, 5%), China (€5 million, 3%), Iceland and Ukraine (each €4 million, 2%) and the United Arab Emirates (€3 million, 2%).
Note:
- Production data: The sampling frame of the survey includes all enterprises, authorities and organisations that carry out any target industrial activity and have 20 employees or more.
- Trade data: 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 candles 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 candles 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 All Saints' Day (1 November).
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