During the past eight months, Vietnam’s textile and garment export turnover grew by 0.7 percent against the same period last year to reach only US$3 billion, meeting 58.3 percent of the yearly plan, says the Vietnam Textile& Garment Corporation (VINATEX).

According to economic experts, this year’s textile and garment export turnover may hit only US$4.8 billion, compared to the set target of US$5.8 billion.

The slight increases in export turnover that are far behind the set target have been attributed to difficulties in consumption markets.

The removal of quotas by WTO member countries have created conditions for countries to increase suddenly export textile and garment products on world markets.

Despite being a traditional export destination, the EU remains a tough market, which demands small difficult orders at high costs. Therefore, Vietnamese businesses don’t feel very enthusiastic to fulfil EU orders.

On the other hand, China’s large export volume of textile and garment products to the EU have made Vietnamese products unable to compete in terms of prices and quantity.

In the four remaining months of this year, enterprises will have to face a number of difficulties such as high input costs, particularly oil and gas costs for production and transport while the prices for exports and domestic consumption will not increase.

Some enterprises may even have to reduce prices to improve their competitiveness.

In the US, hot categories with allocated quotas, such as 347/348 (trousers), 340/640 (shirts) and 338/339 (cotton shirts), are facing a shortage of quotas. On the other hand, the US and the EU have limited Chinese garments imports, so they are likely to be exported to Vietnam illegally.

To cope with the situation, the Ministry of Industry has urged garment and textile enterprises to fully exploit large export markets and utilise their allocated US quotas effectively.

The ministry also asked them to make the most of opportunities when the US and EU re-impose quotas on Chinese garment and textile products.
 
Voice of Vietnam