3:50:55 PM | 16/7/2009
The Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) predicted that the country’s footwear exports would reach only US$4.7 billion this year, equaling last year’s turnover, due to difficulties caused by the global economic crisis.
The sector’s export value posted only US$2 billion in the first half this year, far from its full-year target of US$5.1 billion, the association said.
Although the total value of Vietnam’s footwear exported to the U.S represented an on-year increase of 9 per cent in the six-month period, exports to EU market, the main importer of Vietnamese footwear products, met difficulties because rivals India and Tunisia who are expanding their market shares.
However, economists assessed that the need for footwear in the EU market still remains high despite many of the EU’s member countries suffering the effects of the global economic downturn.
Footwear production in the EU has been reduced by 20 per cent as a large number of factories have been forced to shut down.
Insiders also suggested that Vietnamese businesses should take advantage of the current low value of the U.S. dollar against the Euro to produce and export more sport shoes, leather sandals, and slippers to EU markets. (Vnbusinessnews.com, Liberated Saigon)
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