The textile industry in Macedonia is facing an existential threat due to the increase in the price of electricity.

Some textile companies have installed solar panels in their production plants, but no one could have predicted that there would be such an increase in the price of electricity, so now the calculation says that it is more profitable to sell the energy than to use it for their own needs.

"Now that summer is over, sunny days will be fewer and fewer and the price of electricity will not stop rising.

It turns out that it is better to close the company and we will have more profit from the sale of energy than to operate the company," said Kiril Nashkov, president of a textile group in the eastern region.

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There is so much work in the clothing industry that sometimes the market needs cannot be met, with high demand and service prices have also increased.

However, the energy crisis brought them back to the beginning, as in the period of the Covid pandemic.

"Now when we were supposed to see benefits for both companies and employees as a result of that price increase, this happened to us and we are again in an unenviable situation, similar to the situation with the pandemic," added Nashkov.

The textile industry, as well as the entire industry in general, faces a labor shortage.