2011-16: VN gains almost 60bln USD in footwear export
Under statistics from the General Department of Customs, export value reached 6.5 billion USD in 2011, 7.3 billion USD in 2012, 8.4 billion USD in 2013, 10.3 billion USD in 2014, 12 billion USD in 2015 and 13 billion USD in 2016.
The statistics revealed that during these years, the cycle of footwear exports usually witnessed growth in the second quarter and reached the highest level in the third quarter. In 2016, average export value of the products reached 1.08 billion USD per month.
The US has been the leading footwear export market of Vietnam, accounting for 30 percent of the industry’s total export value. Footwear export value made up 11 percent of Vietnam’s total export value to the US.
In 2016, the US was the largest footwear export market of Vietnam with turnover of 4.48 billion USD, up by 10 percent against the previous year.
The second place went to the Chinese market with export value of 904.9 million USD, followed by Belgium with 825.4 million USD, Germany with 764.7 million USD and Japan with 674.9 million USD.
In terms of region, the EU was the largest footwear export market of Vietnam. Footwear exports from Vietnam to the EU are expected to increase further after the signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
Vietnam’s footwear industry has a long development history and is one of the industries with export advantages, contributing significantly to the national economy.
In 1992, the industry began to export footwear products, earning 5 million USD. So far, the industry’s exports have contributed 10 percent to the national gross domestic product, vneconomy.vn reported.
The Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association said in terms of export volume, Vietnam is one of the top four countries exporting footwear in the world, following China, India and Brazil. The nation has had the second largest export value of footwear in the world, after China. Vietnam’s footwear products were shipped to 50 countries and territories.
However, Vietnam’s export footwear products have almost been processed under foreign fashion brands’ orders and the domestic footwear industry has weaknesses in design and material supply, the association said.
Despite contributing tens of billions of dollars to the national export value, the industry has not received enough investment for development to match its potential in exports, it said.
