Eurostat: Romania is the biggest exporter of violins in the EU

EU Member States exported 105,000 violins last year, worth 23.3 million euros, and Romania is EU's largest violin exporter in the rest of the world, data released on Friday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) shows.

Over half of these (52 per cent, respectively 55,100 violins) went to other EU Member States. The data represent a 7 per cent decline of the total violin exports of the EU member countries compared to 2013.

The largest exporters of violins in the EU to the rest of the world are Romania (14,000 violins exported to non-EU countries, or 28 per cent of extra-Community exports of violins in 2018), Denmark (12,200, 24 per cent), Germany (6,400, 13 per cent), the UK (5,000, 10 per cent), the Czech Republic (2,900, 6 per cent), France (2,700, over 5 per cent), Italy (2,500, 5 per cent) and Belgium (1,800, 4 per cent).

Almost half of the violins exported by the EU went to two countries: the USA and South Korea (11,900 violins each, or 24 per cent of the non-EU exports of violins). They were followed by Japan (6,700, 14 per cent), Canada (2,900, 6 per cent), Australia (2,300, 5 per cent), Switzerland (2,100, 4 per cent), Hong Kong (1,800, under 4 per cent), China (1,700, 3 per cent), Russia (1,600, 3 per cent), Norway (1,200, 2 per cent) and Serbia (870, below 2 per cent).

Also, EU Member States imported 234,800 violins last year, worth 15.7 million euros. The majority (82 per cent, 191,500 violins) came from countries outside the EU. The number of violins imported by EU Member States increased by 27 per cent compared to 2013.

The UK imported 71,300 violins from non-EU countries in 2018, or 37 per cent of total non-EU imports. Thus, the UK is the largest EU importer of violins from the rest of the world, ahead of Germany (31,300, 16 per cent), Italy (18,200, 9 per cent), Spain (16,900, below 9 per cent), Belgium (15,100, 8 per cent) and France (9,100, 5 per cent).

The imports of violins from countries outside the EU came mainly from China (188,500 violins, or 99 per cent of the extra-Community imports), USA (810 violins), Taiwan (670 violins), Republic of Moldova (600 violins), Nepal (240 violins), Brazil (110 violins), Japan (70 violins) and India (60 violins).

Eurostat data were published on the occasion of the celebration on December 13 of the World Violin Day.