Textile, garment, and footwear sectors to surpass full-year export target

Textile garment firms are striving to take advantage of Vietnam's FTAs to enlarge their export market

At the recent textile and garment sector business dialogue in Hanoi, chairman of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) Vu Duc Giang forecast that the sector could achieve $31 billion in total export value this year, surpassing the target by $1 billion.

According to Vitas’ figures, the textile and garment sector reaped $25.7 billion in export value in the year to the end of October, an 11 per cent jump on-year.

The figure is expected to touch $28.5 billion by the end of November.

According to Le Tien Truong, general director of state textile and garment group Vinatex, the US’ withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) has not affected Vietnam's apparel exports to the US.

“Last year, Vietnam raked in $11.45 billion from textile and garment exports to the US, up 4.5 per cent over the previous year. This year, the export value continues on this upward trend and is expected to reach $12.5 billion,” he said.

As for footwear exports, according to the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso) in the year to the end of October Vietnam counted nearly $13 billion from footwear exports, up 13 per cent on-year.

The full-year export value for the footwear sector is forecast to touch $15 billion, while it was $13 billion in 2016.

Major export markets for Vietnamese footwear products remain the US, Europe, China, and Japan. The US accounted for 35.3 per cent of the country’s total footwear export value with nearly $4.17 billion, up 13.7 per cent on-year, while exports to the EU brought in $3.68 billion, making up 31.2 per cent and increasing by 10.5 per cent on-year.

China took the second position behind the US with $930 million, a 30.3 per cent jump on-year, making up 8 per cent of the sector’s total export value.

With export value averaging at $100 million per month, Lefaso expects the sector’s total export value to China to reach $1.2 billion this year, paving the way for more robust export growth in the forthcoming years.

Among the ASEAN markets, Vietnamese footwear exports to Indonesia jumped 53 per cent on-year, to nearly $37 million.

Export value to other markets also rose sharply. For instance, exports to Singapore increased by 45 per cent, to Poland 33 per cent, to India 33.7 per cent, and to Hungary 34 per cent.

According to foreign experts, the world economy fared better this year than last year, and China’s reduced investment incentives to its textile, garment, and footwear sectors to focus on the development of higher technology industries have partially shifted processing orders from China to Vietnam to take advantage of the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement slated to come into force from 2018.

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