Market of bedding: segment of pillows

Abstract

Background. Analysis of the dynamics of world imports and exports makes it possible to reveal the potential of a product. A positive trade balance of the country indicates the competitive products that are supplied to the world market. Pillows are products designed for a wide range of target audiences. That is why the issues concerning the development of pillow production, as well as export opportunities of Ukraine, are currently relevant. Consideration of the state of the world market of pillows, the increase of production of which may be one of the possible directions of development of the light industry of Ukraine, will enable to identify the dynamics of the international pillow market and objectively assess the current need of them.
The study of the light industry is a rather widespread trend among domestic researchers, but the focus is either on the whole industry or on the production of individual products. On the other hand, not enough attention is paid to research the world pillow market with concentration on the Ukrainian data and possible directions of development of Ukrainian export potential.
The aim of the article is the analysis of export-import operations with pillows on the world market to identify possible directions for development of Ukraine’s export potential.
Material and methods. Methods of logical analysis, synthesis of scientific literature, statistics of exports and imports have been used; Market Analysis Tools of the International Trade Centre have been applied. The most used classification of goods for conducting international trade statistics The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) was used to analyze trade flows of pillows in the world.
Results. World import volumes of pillows have increased three times for the past 15 years: from 2.95 billion USD in 2002 to 8.78 billion USD in 2016. The top five countries importing more than 50 % of world imports of pillows are the USA, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada, and the share of the USA in 2016 was 28.8 % of world imports.
In 2017 Ukraine imported pillows for 7.15 million USD. The overall dynamics of import value for 2002–2017 is positive. Among five of the largest suppliers are China, Poland, Turkey, Germany and Serbia.
Pillows on the world marketare offered by China, Poland, Spain,India, Germany, the USA, Estonia, Mexico, Denmark, and Belgium. The biggest exporter is China; its exported value was almost 6.0 billion USD in 2016 that is 63 % of the world market.
In 2016 Ukrainian export of the pillows on the world market averaged 31.4 million USD (0.33 %of the world export). Currently, Ukraine supplies pillows to Poland, Italy, the Russian Federation, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, and Belgium.
Analysis of import tariffs showed that among open markets (import duty rate 0 %) for pillows from Ukraine are markets of Belarus, European countries, Canada, Turkey, Libya, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Japan, Singapore. More than half of the countries in the world protect their market of pillows, and the rate of import duty on Ukrainian pillows, for example, in the USA is 5.6 %. Tariff protection in other countries, which can be potential consumers of Ukrainian pillows, is from 5 to 20 %.
Conclusion. When planning a strategy for the development of pillow exports, Ukrainian companies should pay attention to such countries, whose need for pillows in recent years has increased and who buy pillows annually for over 30 million USD. In particular among such countries are the following: Thailand, China, Malaysia, Korea, New Zealand, Greece, Poland, Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia,Hong Kong (China), Chinese Taipei. However, among these countries, only Greece, Poland and Hong Kong offer favourable conditions for the export of Ukrainian pillows (zero import duty rate). With all others, Ukraine has to dialogue on the existing barriers to entry on their market, in particular, to discuss the reduction of import duty rates on Ukrainian pillows.