Trade

Vietnam retains second spot in global footwear exports in February

Apr 17, 2024 Vietnam

Vietnam remained the world’s second-largest exporter of footwear after China in February, with a turnover of 1.17 billion USD, according to figures released by the General Department of Customs

In February, the Asian country shipped 1.17 billion US dollars’ worth of footwear to more than 150 markets around the world, accounting for 10% of global shipments. However, it is not all good news, as this figure reflects a 40.3% decline on a comparable basis to the previous month of January. Overall, Vietnam’s exports in the first two months of the year totalled 3.1 billion US dollars.

Nevertheless, the country’s performance in its major markets, including the US, the EU and the UK, was strong. The US, in particular, purchased footwear products worth 1.1 billion US dollars, up by 25% year-on-year, accounting for more than a third of Vietnam’s total footwear exports.

China was Vietnam’s second most important destination in February, with exports to this country totalling 318 million US dollars, up by 11.4% year-on-year, followed by Belgium with a total turnover of 191 million US dollars, up 10% year-on-year.

According to the 2030 Development Strategy for Vietnam’s Textile, Leather and Footwear Industries, the country aims to achieve footwear export turnover of 27-28 billion US dollars by 2025 and 38-39 billion US dollars by 2030. The footwear industry is expected to grow at a rate of 10-12% per year during 2022 and 2026.

Vietnamese Footwear Industry

The World Footwear 2023 Yearbook (more information available here) shows that Vietnam was the second-largest export of footwear in the world in 2022. In that year, however, the industry saw its strongest activity in the first half of the year, with a significant slowdown in the second half, but exports still reached a new record high, surpassing the 30 billion US dollars mark.

Image Credits: Peter Nguyen on Unsplash

Vietnam Exports Footwear International Trade Strategy