Cuneo products increasingly cross regional and national borders. If exports are decreasing in Italy and Piedmont, Cuneo bucked the trend and recorded +2% compared to the previous year. Cuneo’s export of goods in the first quarter of 2024, in fact, restarted with momentum compared to the same period of 2023. Foreign sales of products made in Cuneo in the January-March 2024 quarter came close to 2.7 billion euros , recording an increase of 2.0% compared to 2023, while the value of imports approaches 1.4 billion euros (with a decrease of 2.8%). The trade balance stood at 1,296 million euros, recording a +7.7% compared to the period January-March 2023.
«Despite a complicated context which has seen the Italian system slow down the flow of exports, our companies have given a strong signal of vitality by increasing last year’s already extraordinary figure – says the president of the Cuneo Chamber of Commerce Luca Crosetto -. I am confident that the long-awaited drop in interest rates can once again lead to investments, slowed down by the cost of credit, to allow our business system to perform even better in terms of innovation, growth and competitiveness.” Despite the difficult international situation, exports prove to be one of the drivers of the economic growth of our province. Cuneo confirms itself as the second exporting province of Piedmont with 17.4% of regional sales outside the border, which represent 1.7% at a national level. Cuneo’s exports are dynamic and in the period January-March 2024 the values are much higher than that highlighted at Piedmont level (-2.1%) and the national average (-2.8%).
Some sectors mainly contribute to determining this increase. The products of manufacturing activities, equal to 96.2% of total exports, show a +2.7%: the driving sector of manufacturing exports made in Cuneo continues to be the food and beverage sector (+6.5% compared to the first quarter of 2023) and represents 34.9% of foreign sales, although in this quarter the best performance was recorded by electrical and electronic appliances (+17.4%) followed by machinery and equipment (+13.0%) and by means of transport (+1.1%). Conversely, agricultural products recorded a -15.8% and mineral extraction products -19.5%. A significant decline was recorded by wood, paper and printing products with -19.8% followed by chemical and pharmaceutical products (-10.3%).
The preferred basin for Cuneo exports is that of the EU 27 which attracts 62.6% of provincial exports. The most important European markets are the French and German ones, despite a decline of 5.0% towards France and 6.8% towards Germany. Outside the borders of the European Union, the favorite markets are the Anglo-Saxon ones, with the United States and the United Kingdom first and foremost.
