Vietnamese footwear producers are hoping that the domestic market can help them overcome financial difficulties caused by problems in overseas outlets, including the looming EU anti-dumping lawsuit.
Most domestic footwear producers, especially small and medium sized ones, are worried about a drop in contracts for next year due to partners being hesitant and not wanting to sign contracts until after the EU lawsuit is finished, said deputy director of the VSP Nguyen Van Khanh.
Under this context, manufactures are looking at returning to domestic market sales, however, they have admitted it is not an easy aim to achieve, as this outlet was dropped long ago to concentrate on producing foreign products.
While Vietnamese footwear producers were busy exploiting overseas markets, they unintentionally opened the domestic market to foreign producers from mainland China, Taiwan and Malaysia. Vietnamese producers hold only a modest market share, with trademarks including Vina Giay, T&T and Bitis.
Nguyen Quang Huy, head of the domestic market development division of the An Lac Footwear Company, said his company’s products were mainly exported to the EU and Asia, however, it also started exploiting the domestic market three years ago, but only focused on producing canvas shoes.
An Lac is currently planning to deeply exploit the domestic market with various kinds of products, especially targeting the expanding youth market.
Huy said Vietnamese customers seem to prefer purchasing domestic products over foreign ones, however, it is difficult for local producers to exploit the domestic market as the country hasn’t got a professional distribution network like in other countries.
Huy explained that An Lac products are sold by the country’s leading footwear distribution systems including Vina Giay’s shops, Metro Supermarket and Vinatex, however, the above distribution systems are not enough to meet local demand. Meanwhile, it is extremely costly for them to build up their own distribution network.
Domestic footwear producers, therefore, still face challenges in popularizing their products on the domestic front, as they must be both producer and distributor.
Though the Vietnam Footwear Association had planned to help its members introduce their products into the country’s leading footwear distribution systems of Vina Giay, T&T and Bitis, it may be unfeasible as the distribution networks are owned by the country’s most famous footwear producers. The distributors, therefore, are also competitors of other footwear producers.
VNS
Vietnamese
