The footwear export value in the year's first half reached 11.79 billion USD. (Photo: VNA)Phan Thi Thanh Xuan, Lefaso Vice Chairwoman and General Secretary,said the existing inventory for fashion items was very large. Surveys from thebusinesses and brands show that the order situation will slow down until thefirst quarter of 2023.
Vietnam's export leather and footwear products are rated at anaverage level in terms of quality and price. The industry needs to producehigher-value items to compete with the same products from other countries. Todo so, importing high-value raw materials from other countries is necessary.
The domestic leather and footwear industry has not taken advantageof importing equipment and materials from the countries signing tradeagreements with Vietnam. However, it has promoted exports to those markets.
Especially for the EU, this market has a good source of high-valueraw materials suitable for manufacturing products in a higher segment. Vietnamhas not taken opportunities to import new technologies and equipment from thismarket in the context of developing sustainable production using green andclean technology.
Xuan has proposed Vietnam's trade offices abroad to provide marketinformation for the local businesses and assist them in finding partnerssupplying the raw materials and accessories in the EU. That will help thecompanies take tax incentives from the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement(EVFTA).
She also said that the German Supply Chain Act will come intoeffect from January 1, 2023. This law will strongly impact the local productionchain of the leather and footwear industry when exporting to the EU market.
Meanwhile, domestic leather and footwear enterprises have onlyreceived information about the date of effecting the law, but not specificschedules on implementing the law and requirements on procedures.
"Enterprises need this information promptly to prepare theirbusiness plans," Xuan was quoted by CongThuong (Industry and Trade) newspaper as saying.
In addition, the representative of Lefaso also hopes that the Vietnam'strade offices abroad will continue to inform advantages of Vietnam's leatherand footwear industry.
According to the General Department of Customs, Vietnam's footwearexport value in July was 2.27 billion USD, bringing the total turnover in thefirst seven months of this year to 16.08 billion USD. The export value in thefirst seven months rose by 33%.
Meanwhile, Lefaso said the domestic leather and footwearproduction growth rate in July reached 3.2% on the month and 25.5% over theyear. In the first seven months of the year, the production growth of theindustry stood at 15.1%.
The industry's employment index in July also increased by 1.1% and21.6% over the year.
According to the association, the footwear export value in theyear's first half rose by 13.3% to 11.79 billion USD.
Among the export markets of Vietnam's leather and footwearproducts, North America still had the strongest growth with 24.5%, Europe with15.7% and South America with 10.8%.
The export value decreased by 6% in the Asian market and 1.9% inthe Oceania market.
The US was still the largest footwear export market of Vietnam,reaching 6 billion USD. Belgium was the second largest market with 866.6million USD, while China dropped to the third position with 863.2 million USD.
According to the association, Vietnam's footwear exports tomarkets having FTAs with Vietnam have continued a positive recovery.
The exports increased by 18.2% to the EVFTA market, 10.5% to theComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) marketand 10.9% to the UK, which has signed a free trade agreement with Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the Eurasian Economic Union-Vietnam Free TradeAgreement market saw a huge drop in export footwear growth of 57.7% due to theRussia and Ukraine conflict.
Footwear exports to ASEAN declined slightly by 1.7%.
Xuan said that exports in the first half achieved good results.However, local businesses faced great difficulties affecting the production andbusiness results of the domestic leather and footwear industry, including alack of raw materials and labour./.
VNA
