First half-year of the Italian eyewear industry

ANFAO has announced the data for the eyewear industry relating to January-June of this year. The export figures for the first half-year of 2017 confirm the trend recorded in late 2016: that of a reduced growth in terms of numbers but, overall, stable, defined as “ordinary” compared to the previous three years, when double-digit export growth rates were recorded, marking historic records. The period from January to June 2017 has thus seen growth in the value of overall exports of Italian eyewear up by 3.6% on an annual basis. In more detail, the increase in value was 4.3% for frames and 3.2% for sunglasses. The domestic market, despite the hopes for a more concrete and convincing recovery, is still not outstanding in terms of performance and marks an increase in value of just one percentage point for both the eyewear segment (sunglasses+frames) and that of ophthalmic lenses, remaining essentially stable compared to the same period of the previous year.