The slow recovery of exports from Parma industries continues, still struggling with the realignment of the pharmaceutical sector compared to pre-covid values.
2023 closed with -4% influenced precisely by the decline in pharmaceutical products (-39.6%), the first quarter of 2024 shows a containment of the overall decline to 2.6% (given which showed the opposite sign to companies’ expectations) , the result, once again, of the contraction of the chemical-pharmaceutical sector (-20.8%) and the simultaneous and significant growth of the other sectors. Parma’s exports thus stood, in value, at 2,446 million euros.
Sales on international markets, according to the analysis of the Research Office of the Emilia Chamber of Commerce on Istat data, recorded a decline of 5.6% in Europe, while showing an increase of 4.3% in non-European countries.
Among the sectors that contribute most to the exports of Parma companies are the products of manufacturing activities, for a value of 2,387 million euros, with a decrease of 2.2% compared to the same period last year.
† Holy Land 15 – In the cenacle of the Last Supper in Jerusalem. If Jesus had asked me to organize it… (by Andrea Marsiletti)
Going into the detail of the individual sectors, the foreign demand for Parma manufacturing, which represents 96.8% of the exports of the entire province, in the first quarter of 2024 mainly concerned food products and tobacco, for a value of 738 million euros and an increase of 11.3% compared to March 2023; followed by machinery and equipment, with 608 million exported and an increase of 9.4% compared to the first quarter of last year.
Opposite sign, as mentioned, for pharmaceutical and medicinal chemical items which, although with a value of 320 million euros, show a decline of 20.8%.
The flow of goods to European countries amounts to a total of 1,649 billion euros, equal to 67% of Parma’s total exports; America, with 457 million euros, represents 19%, followed by Asia with a 10% share and a value of 236 million.
In the Euro area, France stands out as the main commercial interlocutor, with 342 million euros purchased (-14.4% compared to March 2023), while on a global scale the United States stands out (over 309 million euros in the first quarter of 2024 , with a decrease of 4.3% compared to the previous year) and the United Kingdom, with a value of exports from Reggio that reached 124 million and an increase of 2.7%.
