Although footwear exports to their largest destination market, the United States fell slightly by 3.5% in October 2014 compared with September 2014, sales abroad grew by 26.1% compared to October 2013. Comparing the performance in other important destination markets in October 2014 to similar month in 2013, Belgium increased over 92.0%, UK rose by 14.9% and Germany by 24.0%.

Turnover for the industry’s exports in the first 10 months of 2014 totaled 8.3 billion US dollars, accounting for 6.7% of total merchandise exports of the country, an increase of 23.9% over similar period last year.

In general, footwear exports in the first 10 months to the majority of the market turnover increased over the same period last year. The United States remain the largest consumer market for Vietnam footwear, accounting for 32.3% of the total, reaching 2.7 billion US dollars; followed by Belgium (532.2 million US dollars, accounting for 6.4%), the UK (467.8 million US dollars, accounting for 5.64%), Germany (463.2 million US dollars, accounting for 5.6%), Japan (437.3 million US dollars, accounting for 5.3%), China (US 426.5 million US dollars, accounting for 5.1%), the Netherlands (377.0 million US dollars, accounting for 4.54%), Spain (311.1 million US dollars, accounting for 3.8%).

According to Lefaso, the objective of the footwear industry is now to “increase total exports, expand markets (developed in width), increase margins for the industry (developed in depth), which should increase the value increases, the value of exports for footwear products. The link with the famous brands to diversify the product is a new direction that domestic enterprises should seize. To get the products with high value, businesses must develop a strategy to develop towards upgrading the scale, investment in machinery and equipment and personnel to produce high-end product lines thereby contributing enhance the value of exports.”

According to data recently issued by the General Department of Customs, exports of footwear reached 955.2 million US dollars in the month of November, up by 10.6% from similar period in 2013.The same source indicated that exports during the period January – November totaled 9 247.9 million US dollars, growing 23.7% from similar period in 2013.

According to the 2014 edition of the World Footwear Yearbook Vietnam produced 770 million pairs of footwear in 2013, and is the second largest exporter of footwear, with a share of roughly 4.5%.