The President of the Textile and Leather Industry Cluster at the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia – ECNM, Angel Dimitrov, informed today that last due to the coronavirus pandemic, out of a total of 37.000 employees in the textile and leather industry in Macedonia, around 3.000 people have been laid off, and around 20% of them may be laid off. According to him, the reason is that most of the domestic capacities either aren’t working or are working but with utterly reduced production. This is due to the canceled or limited orders of textile and leather products and clothing from the foreign partners.
“We appeal to the government for bigger diligence and responsibility in solving the problems in all of these areas and for providing greater support. At the start of the pandemic, the companies have partially managed to retain the number of employees and they have compensated for the downturn of the orders with the production of face masks and other protective gear, for which there was a great demand. But in January this year, there are no orders for export because of the additional lockdowns in the European countries such as Germany, Italy, and England. According to the announcements and estimations of the company owners, it would take up to 6 months for the orders from abroad to be normalized and that would mean a new period of lowered economic activity, profitability, and liquidity,” said Angel Dimitrov, the President of the Textile and Leather Industry Cluster at the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia at the press conference about the current situation and challenges in this area.
