On April 17th, the General Administration of Customs released the latest export data for China's leather industry in January-February 2026. The data shows that since the beginning of the year, China's leather exports have rebounded strongly, with continuous structural optimization, achieving a good start of "both volume and price increases, and profit upgrades." This fully demonstrates the strong resilience and high-quality development momentum of China's leather industry, with compliant, high-value-added products becoming the core engine driving export growth.
As a core export category, leather apparel performed particularly well. Data shows that in January-February 2026, China exported 843,000 pieces of leather apparel, a year-on-year increase of 53.3%; the export value reached US$28.317 million, a surge of 100.0% year-on-year, achieving more than double the export value; the export unit price increased to US$33.6 per piece, a year-on-year increase of 30.4%. This data clearly reflects the effectiveness of China's leather apparel industry's transformation from "low-end volume" to "high-end quality improvement," with a significant increase in product added value and market competitiveness.
From an industry-wide perspective, in January and February 2026, China's leather industry (including bags, shoes, belts, gloves, and other categories) achieved total exports of US$14.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%; the trade surplus reached US$12.18 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.7%, indicating continued improvement in export profitability and a positive overall development trend.
In terms of export market layout, a distinct pattern emerged: "high-end markets leading the way, and emerging markets gaining momentum." Specifically, exports to the EU increased by 19.9% year-on-year, and exports to ASEAN increased by 20.3% year-on-year, with ASEAN officially becoming China's largest trading partner for leather products. Exports to countries along the Belt and Road Initiative increased by 20% year-on-year, demonstrating the continued release of potential in emerging markets and becoming a new driving force for export growth. Affected by tariffs and global supply chain adjustments, exports to the US market declined by 16.9% year-on-year, indicating a clear market differentiation.
It is worth noting that this export data also confirms the core development trend of the industry: Currently, the market share of low-end, high-volume products continues to shrink, while high-priced, high-value-added products have become the main export drivers; compliance premiums are becoming increasingly prominent, with suppliers possessing new national standards, OEKO-TEX® certification, and EUDR deforestation traceability qualifications seeing a significant increase in order share, and compliance has become a core competitive advantage for enterprises to seize international markets. In the future, with the continuous upgrading of China's leather industry and the ongoing improvement of its compliance system, export growth momentum is expected to continue, driving higher-quality development of Chinese leather products in the global market.
