
The holiday period affects the import of certain products and especially the market of toys and pyrotechnic products. Their market experiences a significant increase especially during the months of November and December. "Scan Intel" has analyzed the data of the Institute of Statistics on the import of toys and pyrotechnic products for the month of November of this year, but also over the years or compared to the month of November of other years. But what does the data say? How is the toy market presented?
INSTAT data show that for the 11th month of 2023, toy imports reached 2.8 billion ALL and their highest value was reached in the months of October and November. In absolute terms, regarding the months of October and November, we say that 409 million and 337 million ALL of toys were imported, respectively. Compared to the same period a year ago, imports both in value and quantity have decreased by 7%. So we are importing fewer toys, and the ones we do import are cheaper.
If we analyze the data by month over the years, we see that November 2021 has marked the highest value of imported toys since January 2005, the last year for which INSTAT has data. On the other hand, the lowest value was recorded in February 2006.
The toy import curve fluctuates by month, but since 2021, a downward trend is observed. This trend may also be the result of demographic indicators, i.e. the decrease in the number of births, causing there to be fewer children and, consequently, a decrease in the demand for toys.
'Scan Intel' has analyzed the data to understand the origin of the toys sold in our country. The figures show that China remains the main country from which we import. Only during November of the current year, i.e. 2023, 84% of the toys that entered the country were of Chinese origin. Meanwhile, the figures show that 3% of these toys were from Italy and 2.7% from Turkey. On the other hand, trade of toys with partner countries such as Belgium, Japan and Vietnam has been at very low levels, as less than 1% of toys are imported from these countries.
In addition to toys, imports of pyrotechnic products and matches were taken as tools in the analysis. The data show that their imported value during the 11th month of 2023 reaches 580 million ALL. Their highest value was reached in the first month of the year, i.e. January, when 114.6 million ALL of pyrotechnic products were imported. Even for this item, compared to a year ago, imports have had a downward trend. Specifically, in the month of November 2023, 28 million ALL of explosives, pyrotechnic products and matches were imported, or 74% less compared to November of 2022, where the value of imports for this item was 104 million ALL.