SECONDARY MARKETS · Afterlives of Unsold Goods: Secondary Markets and Continuations of Global Supply Chains in Southeastern Europe

Overproduction and overconsumption in the European Union, particularly in the fashion sector, have prompted attempts to channel unsold goods into alternative markets. In recent years, specialised companies have organised the export of branded overstock to non-EU countries, with Southeastern Europe (SEE) emerging as a key “secondary market.” For EU producers, this represents both a way of disposing of unsold goods at the primary market, and an opportunity to develop new consumer bases in the Balkans. The project ""Afterlives of Unsold Goods: Secondary markets and continuations of global supply chains in Southeastern Europe"" (SECONDARY MARKETS) is a multi-sited ethnographic study that investigates these markets as extensions of global supply chains. Through “following the cargo,” it retraces how surplus goods are moved, revalued, and made attractive to buyers outside the EU. Empirically, the project examines two companies exporting from France and Germany to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, together with informal traders who bring in popular goods, often bought in supermarkets. This dual focus captures both formal and informal secondary markets and the different value regimes they create. The project addresses gaps in understanding continuations of global supply chains outside of the core markets as well as how secondary markets operate. It sheds light on power relations between the EU and its semiperiphery. Expected outcomes include theoretical contributions to supply chain studies, new insights into trade relations and regulatory regimes in SEE, and a critical perspective on the sustainability of redistributing overproduction. The project will deliver high-impact publications, contributing to the supply-chain theories, inform debates on sustainable production and consumption, and foster research networks between EU and non-EU contexts. The project will give policymakers grounded evidence on the implementation challenges of EU circular economy and waste regulations.""