According to the Korea Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI) the textile exports which was once Korea’s top export item has came down to the fourth position in the list of export industries for 2003.

Textile exports amounted to $5.97 billion in the first five months of
this year, down 1.3 percent from the same period a year ago. Textiles accounted for 8.1 percent of the nation's total exports during the period.

In the 1970s, the industry accounted for some 40 percent of the
nation's annual exports, peaking in 1971 at 42 percent. Since then, textile's share in annual exports has continued to dive, hitting 29.3 percent in 1980, 22.7 percent in 1990 and 10.9 percent in 2000.

Last year, textiles accounted for 9.7 percent of total exports. The
federation said textile exports have dwindled further this year. Until the 1980s, textiles were South Korea's single largest export
item. But the industry handed over its crown to electric and electronic appliances in the 1990s. In 1999, semiconductors emerged as the largest export item, pushing textiles down to third place. This year, automobiles replaced semiconductors as the largest export item, knocking textiles down another slot.

The average annual textile export growth rate has also dived from 11.2 percent in the 1980s to 2.4 percent in the 1990s. In 2001, textile exports plunged by 12.7 percent from the previous year. The textile export decline witnessed in 2001 was much more drastic than the 2.8 percent drop seen in 1998.

“Plummeting textile exports are attributed to China's dominance in the low- and medium-priced apparel and cloth markets in the world,'' a KOFOTI official said.

Clothes and apparels accounted for 70.7 percent of South Korea's
textile exports and fabrics made up 20.9 percent in 1977. But the trend has reversed since 1993. Fabrics made up 56.4 percent of total exports between January and May this year, while clothes and apparels accounted for 27.6 percent.

“The nose-diving textile exports are a result of the local textile
industry's failure to escape from the cheap product oriented export
structure. Local textile firms should proactively foster high value-added textile products such as industrial fibers and fashion apparels,'' the official said.