HCMC – Improving the quality of Vietnamese footwear will give exporters a competitive edge over low-priced Chinese products, an industry expert told reporters on the sidelines of the 29th International Footwear Conference in HCMC on Tuesday.
“China has big productivity. No other country produces as much footwear as it does within a short period of time,” said Peter T. Mangione, managing director of Global Footwear Partnership LLC.
He said a Chinese shoes company could produce thousands of pairs of shoes within a day and suggested Vietnam should make high-quality shoes given its lack of facilities able to turn out huge volumes of cheap footwear.
It does not make sense to try to compete with China in the U.S. market, he noted, because China is now and will be the biggest footwear supplier of America whose 87% footwear demand is met by China.
Big footwear brands like Adidas and Nike are moving their production to Indonesia and maintaining their presence in Vietnam but downsizing their activity in China due to labor shortages and rising costs. However, China cannot be replaced as the world’s leading footwear maker.
Mangione said Asia would remain the biggest footwear supplier of the world but could also become a potential market for the product. For example, China is seen as the most attractive market in the region as its consumption is rising dramatically due to fast urbanization.
About foreign investment in Vietnam’s footwear industry, the expert predicted that investment in the sector might rise but not significantly because leading footwear brands Nike and Adidas had invested heavily in China over the years.
