Exports reached €3.78 billion through August, with technical textiles, woven clothing and markets outside the EU providing the strongest momentum.
Portugal’s textile and clothing exports increased 2.4% year on year to €3.78 billion during January–August 2026, adding €87.1 million after the sector recorded a slight decline in 2025, according to data from Portugal’s National Statistics Institute.
Woven apparel accelerates
Non-knitted apparel delivered the largest absolute increase, rising 8.5% to €696.5 million. Knitted apparel remained Portugal’s largest export category at €1.46 billion, but grew a more modest 1.3%.
Higher-value technical categories performed particularly strongly. Exports of impregnated, coated and laminated fabrics increased 13.8% to €259.2 million, while wadding, felt, nonwovens and cordage products rose 7.3% to €253.6 million. Carpets increased 17.2% to €76.4 million.
By contrast, man-made staple-fibre exports fell 26.4% to €112.8 million, while man-made filaments declined 11.2%.
Growth broadens beyond Europe
The EU still absorbed around 71% of Portuguese textile and clothing exports, but growth outside the bloc was substantially faster.
EU shipments rose 1.3% to €2.69 billion, while exports to non-EU markets increased about 5% to €1.09 billion. Spain remained Portugal’s largest market at €873.3 million but was virtually flat.
France grew 4.1% to €559.2 million, the US increased 3.1% to €300.9 million and the Netherlands advanced 10.2% to €230.1 million. Smaller markets expanded faster, including Mexico at +71.7% and Vietnam at +88.2%.
Competitiveness takeaway
Portugal illustrates how a relatively high-cost textile country can remain competitive through speed, proximity, technical capability, smaller flexible orders and specialised products.
For countries like Pakistan, competing purely on labour or energy cost is increasingly insufficient. The stronger opportunity is to combine its vertical scale with technical fabrics, functional finishing, rapid product development and smaller-batch manufacturing.
Portugal’s results also show why technical textiles matter: while several commodity fibre categories contracted sharply, coated fabrics, nonwovens and specialised products continued to expand. The strategic objective should therefore be not only more textile exports, but more export value per kilogram.
