.jpg "Photo: Tuoi Tre")
Footwear exports this year could top a record $5.4 billion, well above the target of $4.6-$5 billion, Nguyen Duc Thuan, chairman of the Vietnam Leather & Footwear Association, said.
Exports maintained their high growth rate in August, he said, with the month’s shipments of $450 million taking the year-to-date figure to $3.22 billion, a 19 percent increase year on year.
Exports had been worth $4.1 billion last year despite the global recession. The number of contracts signed this year is already 16 percent higher than for the whole of last year, Thuan said without specifying their value.
Vietnam is the world’s fifth biggest footwear exporter but the domestic industry faces many difficulties, especially the shortage of workers and dependence on imported raw materials.
The country still imports 70-80 percent of tanned leather and high-quality leatherette to make shoe caps, certain soles, and decorations.
Its support and machine tools industries are in a very primitive stage while footwear marketers and designers lag behind their foreign rivals, making it hard to create international brands for Vietnamese footwear.
Exporters have come up against protectionist barriers in the EU, Peru, and Turkey.
But the industry is aiming to expand exports to markets like the US and ASEAN member countries to take advantage of free trade agreements.
Vietnam has an advantage over its main rival, China, in labor costs since China’s GDP per capita is now $3,000 compared to its $1,200, Thuan said.
Vietnam’s per capita income is forecast to rise to $3,500 only in 2020, which means the leather-shoe industry can continue to be competitive through the next decade, he added.
Another factor in its favor is that demand for leather footwear remains very high.
Worldwide, some 17 billion pairs of shoes are produced every year, of which six to seven billion are manufactured under contract.
