Set of different toys on wooden table in children's room

When embarking on the hunt for the perfect presents to delight children, toys are surely at the top of the list. 

The EU is a net importer of toys from the rest of the world, with €7.1 billion worth of toys imported from extra-EU countries in 2021. Extra-EU exports totalled around a third of this (€2.4 billion). 

 

Infographic: Extra-EU trade in toys, € billion, 2021

Source dataset: DS-018995

 

China main toy importer to the EU

China was the biggest supplier of toys to the EU, accounting for 83% of toy imports in 2021, far ahead of Vietnam (4%) and the United Kingdom (2%). Around a fifth of EU imports of toys went to Germany (19%), while the Netherlands and France accounted for 17% and 11%, respectively.

 

United Kingdom, Switzerland and United States top export destinations

The main non-EU export destination with more than a fourth of exports was the United Kingdom (27%), followed by Switzerland (12%) and the United States (11%). Together, these countries accounted for half of extra-EU exports by value. More than half of the toys exported from the EU came from Czechia (34%), Germany (21%) and Belgium (7%).

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Methodological notes:

  • Toys: SITC product code 894.2 ‘Tricycles, scooters, pedal car and similar wheeled toys; dolls' carriages; dolls; other toys; reduced-size ("scale") models and similar recreational models, working or not; puzzles of all kinds’.
  • Dutch trade flows are over-estimated because of the so-called ‘Rotterdam effect’ (or quasi-transit trade): goods bound for other EU countries arrive in Dutch ports and, according to EU rules, are recorded as extra-EU imports by the Netherlands (the country where goods are released for free circulation). This in turn increases the intra-EU flows from the Netherlands to those Member States to which the goods are re-exported.

 

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