Light industry occupies a special place among Russian manufacturing enterprises and comprises an enormous number of small businesses who employ a large number of people. In contrast to many other sectors, the light industry was in fairly good condition prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1989-1990, many enterprises underwent refitting/reformation. The economic crisis of 1998 had a beneficial effect on the light industry. Devaluation of the rouble led to a decrease in market imports and, as a result, production in Russia's light industry increased and reached its highest level in 1995. This was the fastest growth rate of all industrial branches.
However, in spite of the production increase, the domestic light industry satisfies only 20 to 25% of the market demand. The remaining 60-80% is covered by imports.
Local companies produce virtually all types of clothes, starting from men’s/ladies wear, sportswear, corporate wear and right up to top quality fur products. A number of companies produce foreign brand clothing under licensing or subcontracting agreements.
According to Roslegprom, in 2008 due to the influence of global economic crisis the volume of production in light industry of Russia comprised 95,5% of the previous year’s volume, but by some groups of goods there occurred an increase, i.e. production of knitwork items grew by 7%, of coats – by almost 19%, of shoes – by 2,5%.
Light industry has been traditionally developing in the economy of St. Petersburg, although the scale of clothing and footwear manufacturing is relatively smaller than that of leading sectors of the city’s industry. In 2008 enterprises of light industry had a share of 1% in the total value of goods dispatched by manufacturing industry and 3,4% in the total employment.
