Vietnam downwardly revises 2012 garment export target

Source: Fibre2Fashion
August 18, 2012 (Vietnam)
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) has reduced the garment and textile export-value target for the current year from US$ 19 billion to US$ 17-17.5 billion, mainly due to sluggish export growth and a drop in orders.

Although Vietnam’s garment and textile exports grew at a year-on-year rate of 7.5 percent to reach US$ 9.2 billion during the first seven months of the year, the export growth rate was far below the 30 percent growth achieved during the same period last year.


Though textile and garment export turnover remains positive, it has failed to rise to the expectations of the sector, said VITAS Deputy Chairman and General Secretary, Dang Phuong Dung.

Vietnam textile and garment industry has yet not been able to develop trademarks to compete globally and has been facing problems in obtaining sizeable orders.

Moreover, heavy dependence on imported raw materials and outsourcing of orders resulting in low return rate have held back Vietnam’s garment sector from making any significant value addition in export items.

VITAS Deputy Chairman Pham Xuan Hong said only large textile and garment enterprises have booked orders for third quarter of the current year, while several small and medium sized firms have been forced to scale down production for want of orders.

Over the past few months, there has been a considerable fall in consumption demands in the EU, which has caused the export orders to dip by about 20-30 percent over the same period last year.

As per VITAS’ predictions, owing to financial crisis, raw material scarcity and higher input costs, Vietnam’s garment and textile sector would continue to face problems for the next two to three months.