Vietnam’s “Investment News” reported on October 7 that Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the export of footwear and luggage in 2020 will face many difficulties, and the export volume is expected to only reach US$20 billion, US$2 billion less than in 2019, and far below the US$24 billion target set at the beginning of the year.
The production index of leather and related products in the first nine months of 2020 fell by 3.8% year-on-year. Like the textile and apparel industry, footwear production and exports have been affected by the epidemic. The total export volume of footwear in the first nine months of this year was approximately US$12.08 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 8.8%. The export value of luggage and umbrellas also fell by 16.9%, to only US$2.3 billion.
2019 is regarded as a successful year for Vietnam’s leather shoes and luggage industry, with exports reaching US$11 billion, an increase of 12.2% over 2018, of which footwear exports reached 18.3 billion U.S. dollars, and luggage exports reached 3.7 billion U.S. dollars.
From now to the end of the year, the United States and Europe are Vietnam’s two largest footwear export markets. Due to the complicated evolution of the epidemic, the output of the leather shoe industry will continue to face difficulties. The biggest driver of growth for the industry is the official entry into force of EVFTA. However, as many EU markets are still battling the epidemic, there are not many opportunities for breakthroughs in exports to the EU in the last few months of this year.
According to data from “World Footwear Magazine”, the total global footwear output in 2019 reached approximately 25 billion pairs, and Vietnam accounted for the world’s total output of approximately 1.4 billion pairs. 5.4% of total output ranks third. </p
