Italy is the fourth world power in non-automotive exports
The strength of Italian foreign trade is based on "medium" and "medium-large" products in the 500 million to 5 billion export class
Despite the slowdown in 2023-2024, due to the German crisis and intra-European trade, over the last ten years Italian exports have been the protagonist of a remarkable evolution. In fact, in 2015 Italy was only the eighth world exporter of goods; in 2024, as can be seen from Table 1, it placed itself in sixth place, in the meantime overtaking the United Kingdom and France. It should be noted that this ranking excludes the Netherlands and Hong Kong, which on paper are ahead of us, but whose export values are abnormally inflated by transit and are therefore absolutely not significant.
Not only that. In the first half of 2025, according to initial estimates, Italian exports should also have exceeded those of South Korea, as had already happened temporarily in the twelve months of 2023, so that Italy would currently be in fifth place among exporters. The values of the two countries are very close, so continuous changes are possible. But it is a fact that we are witnessing a tight head-to-head between Italy and the Republic of Korea for fifth place in the ranking of the world's largest exporters. Which was unthinkable ten years ago.
The numbers speak for themselves. In 2015, Italy exported $9.3 billion less than the United Kingdom and $38.8 billion less than France. In 2024, our country exported 47.9 billion more than France and 162 billion more than the United Kingdom. Also in 2015, Italy exported 69.9 billion dollars less than South Korea and 168 billion less than Japan. Today the distance with Korea, as mentioned, has practically disappeared and that with Japan has reduced considerably.
In this article we will try to understand the reasons for thisexploitof Made in Italy, every day more and more protagonist on world markets.
Italy beats Japan in exports excluding vehicles
In 2024, only 33 billion dollars separated Japan's exports (708 billion) from those of Italy (675), after that in the first half of last year, for the first time in contemporary history, our country's exports had even temporarily surpassed not only those of South Korea but also those of the Land of the Rising Sun.
However, excluding vehicles, in 92% of the remaining world trade in value, Italy has already been clearly the fourth world exporter of goods for two years, with 628 billion dollars in 2024, ahead of only 557 billion in Japan. This means that Italy's exports, excludingautomotive, is much larger and more diversified than the Japanese one. Incidentally, Japan's vehicle exports in the same year were $151 billion, compared to ours' $47 billion.
As we have already had the opportunity to underline on other previous occasions, the fact that in 2015, i.e. just nine years ago, Italy was only seventh in the world in exports of all goods excluding vehicles, and has now risen to fourth place, distancing not only Japan but also South Korea, France, Russia and the United Kingdom, is a fact of historic importance, which highlights our growth in terms of competitiveness but also the extraordinary diversification of the portfolio of products exported by our country. Some may perhaps be surprised that Italy, excluding vehicles, managed to beat an industrial giant like Japan in exports. But this is exactly how it is and it is interesting to understand on which product structure of exports this overtaking was based.
To this end we considered the 97 product categories of the two-digit HS classification of world trade and compared the exports of Italy and Japan in 2024 by value classes of exported goods, excluding the category of vehicles. As can be seen from Table 2, in the remaining 96 categories of goods, Japan's exports are more concentrated than Italy's in large sectors. The Land of the Rising Sun, in fact, in addition toautomotive(not considered here), boasts 2 products each with exports exceeding 100 billion dollars (non-electronic mechanics and electrical appliances and household appliances), while Italy has only one (non-electronic mechanics). Both countries then have only one category of products with an export of between 50 and 100 billion dollars (in the case of Italy it is pharmaceutical products) and four products with exports of between 20 and 50 billion dollars. The cumulative exports of these first three classes of goods see Japan far ahead of Italy, with 397 billion against our 289 billion. But from here on things change drastically and our country overtakes Tokyo, thanks to the large number of diversified goods in Italy with an export of between 5 and 20 billion dollars: these are 24 products, with a value of 249 billion dollars, compared to only 10 corresponding products in Japan, with a value of just 100 billion. In addition, Italy boasts 34 other products with an export of between 1 billion and 5 billion dollars, for a value of 78 billion, compared to only 20 products in Japan, for a value of 44 billion.
Broadening the comparison with other countries, it is interesting to note that, again based on the two-digit HS classification and 2024 data, Italy, with its aforementioned 249 billion dollars, is even the third world exporter of products in the value class from 5 to 20 billion dollars, just behind Germany (288 billion) and the United States (282 billion). Our country precedes China itself (233 billion) and significantly distances itself from France (168 billion) and, in addition to Japan which has already been mentioned, also South Korea (85 billion).
Ultimately, it is the revenge of the Made in Italy model, long underestimated by some of ourmainstream,if not even judged incapable of competing on the basis of unfounded clichés: a Made in Italy that bases its strength not on mega sectors and/or mega industrial groups (as is the case of Japan but also of other economies such as Germany and South Korea), but rather on a notable range of goods belonging to the most diverse sectors, exported by some important large groups (such as Luxottica, Ferrero, Leonardo or Fincantieri) but above all by a large army of medium-large and medium, dynamic and flexible. This allows us to excel in numerous categories of goods, from mechanics to pharmaceuticals, from cruise ships to yachts, from food products to wines, from cosmetics to metal products, from plastic articles to clothing, from footwear to bags, from furniture to ceramic tiles. It will probably be this same diversification, unique in the world, that will be able to help Italy minimize the damage and navigate without losing its way in the turbulent storms of Donald Trump's tariffs.
The weight of "medium" and "medium-large" products in Italian exports
We will now carry out a more analytical and detailed study of the product structure of Italian exports, which we will compare with that of the two countries that Italy has overtaken in the last ten years in terms of exports (United Kingdom and France) and with that of the two large Asian economies with which Made in Italy has significantly reduced the distances in recent times (South Korea and Japan). In this case we will consider the total export, including vehicles, still referring to 2024 data but using the four-digit HS classification which is more detailed in terms of types and number of products. In fact, there are a total of 1,258 HS4 products. We have grouped them, for each of the countries analyzed, into four classes:
Great products, with exports individually exceeding 5 billion dollars;Medium-large products, with exports individually ranging between 500 million and 4.99 billion dollars;Average products, with exports individually ranging between 100 million and 499 million dollars;Small products, with exports individually less than 100 million dollars.
In the case of South Korea, unfortunately, it was not possible to distinguish in detail the medium-large, medium and small products which were considered as a single aggregate.
Figure 1 compares the product structure of the exports of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, South Korea and Japan. It is immediately clear that the exports of the Republic of Korea and Japan, but also that of the United Kingdom, are strongly concentrated on large products, while Italy is the economy with the lowest value of exports relating to this class, also surpassed, albeit slightly, by France.
However, thanks to the contribution of the strong exports of the next class of medium-large products, worth 336 billion dollars, the highest among the five countries analysed, Italy leapfrogs the United Kingdom and France and brings South Korea and Japan considerably closer in cumulative exports. It should be noted that the value of Italian exports of medium-large products is individually higher even than the aggregate value of medium-large, medium and small products from the Republic of Korea and is over one hundred billion dollars higher than that of medium-large products exported from Japan. Italy, then, can also boast a significant export of medium products, equal to 76 billion dollars, which further brings the overall export values of South Korea and Japan closer together.
We also observe that among the large products exported from Italy there are still many products characteristic of Made in Italy, not very large (i.e. with individual exports rarely exceeding 10 billion dollars or slightly higher), which are closer to medium-large products than to the very large products exported from Japan and South Korea, such as motor vehicles, telephones, electronics. For example, the major products exported from Italy include: leather bags, taps and valves, wines and sparkling wines, leather shoes, medicines, furniture, packaging machines, cheeses. While among the medium-large Made in Italy export products, with exports ranging between 500 million and 4.99 billion dollars, we find: ceramic tiles, pasta, baked goods, yachts, women's and men's clothing, glasses, tomato derivatives, chocolate-based products, cosmetics and perfumes, machine tools, cruise ships, etc.
These international comparisons completely overturn the stereotype of an Italy squeezed into products that are too small and exported by companies that are too small. An image that has been fueled for years by a certain one of usmainstreamalways inclined to magnify the models of other countries and to represent the Italian economy as a subject inexorably dominated by large competitors, incapable of seizing the opportunities offered by the enlargement and growth of the global market. The data, in fact, show that, on the contrary, Italy excels in a notable number of medium-large (there are a total of 225) and medium (310) products, which contribute to making Made in Italy more diversified and specialized than its competitors, while the value of the Italian export of the remaining small products (which are 710 in total) is all in all marginal and irrelevant in comparison with other exporters of a similar size to ours.
In conclusion, behind the global export giants (China, the United States and Germany), Italian exports are gaining positions year after year and are now essentially on the same level as South Korea and Japan. This is by virtue of a growing competitive capacity in medium-large and large products, which represent over 85% of our exports.