Vietnam garment exports touches USD 1.89 bn in June alone

Vietnam garment exports in June alone, achieved over 1.89 billion U.S. dollar, up by 22.4 percent against the previous month, posting the first time high since January 2014. With this the first half of 2014 has reached over 9.38 billion U.S. dollars up by 19.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for 13.2 percent of the national total export revenue during the period, when garment replaced phone and accessories to top Vietnam’s export items in terms of revenue, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs latest statistics on Tuesday.

The United States was the largest market of Vietnam’s garment in six-month period with import revenue of 4.57 billion U.S. dollars, up 15.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for 48.7 percent of Vietnam’s total market shares for garment.

European Union followed the US with a turnover of 1.49 billion U.S. dollars, up by 27.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for 15.9 percent of Vietnam’s total market shares.

Among 153 garment exporting countries and regions worldwide in terms of revenue, Vietnam has reached to top five in the past years; with garment contributing some 15 percent to Vietnamese export revenue annually.

However, Vietnamese garment is facing several internal problems such as being too much dependent on imported fabrics, focusing on Cut, Measure and Thread (CMT) jobs, which creates low wages for local workers, said Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade recently.

In order to lay stable foundation for the development of the sector, Vietnam’s garment exporters should focus on strengthening capacity of designing, and marketing to transfer from CMT method to Free On Board, Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) or Original Brand Manufacturer (OBM) methods, in which profit in each product will be increased as well as seek for more material sources.

In addition, Vietnamese garment enterprises need to diversify textile products, enhance competition of Vietnamese product and promote made in Vietnam brand. It also needs to boost exports of traditional garment.