Planning a ski holiday this winter? If so, you may be surprised to learn that the equipment you're using may have come from the UK, as the second largest exporter of skis and ski equipment in the EU.

Data published by the EU stats office, Eurostat, in celebration of International Mountain Day (11th December) show that across the EU Member States, Austria exported 2.5m pairs of skis and snowboards last year — 34% of all EU countries’ exports, while the UK exported just over 1m (14%).

They were followed at a distance by Germany (674,100 items, 9%), Bulgaria (605,200 items, 8%), France (590,000 items, 8%), the Czech Republic (561,700 items, 8%), Spain (454,400 items, 6%), Slovenia (344,300 items, 5%) and Italy (324,300 items, 4%).

Last year, over 7.3m pairs of skis and individual snowboards were exported by EU member states to other countries, particularly the US (almost 1.4 million items, or 46% of the total extra-EU exports of skis and snowboards).

In 2016, Member States also imported 1.5 million skis and snowboards from non-EU countries. Nearly half of these originated from Ukraine (731,400 items, 49%), followed by China (420,600 items, 28%) and Taiwan (129,200 items, 9%).

Most of the UK’s exports are of cross-country skis rather than regular skis or snowboards. In 2016, it sold more than 940,000 of such skis outside the EU, the most of any EU member state.

However, partly due to poor snow conditions across a number of popular European ski resorts in recent years, the industry has experienced a slowdown in the last decade. It now exports around 30 per cent less than it did 10 years ago — 3.3m fewer skis and snowboards.