The Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association said that despite facing many difficulties, the export of the leather, footwear and handbag industry in 2024 is still estimated to reach 27.04 billion USD, an increase of 11.45% compared to 2023; of which, footwear exports reached 23.24 billion USD, an increase of 13.16% and suitcases-bags-briefcases reached 3.8 billion USD, an increase of 9.7%.

The first challenge is from the very high requirements for sustainable development (green transformation, application of clean energy, renewable energy) of major export markets such as the US, EU, and Japan.

Along with that, the costs are also very large, such as the cost of complying with green standards; increasingly high input costs from labor, raw materials, and logistics. Domestic labor resources are increasingly scarce. Workers in urban areas are almost unqualified, so businesses have to move to remote areas to take advantage of available labor resources.

The shortage of raw materials is also very difficult, when domestic supply only meets 50% of demand.

In addition, the challenge of applying science – technology and research and development in leather and footwear enterprises. With limited capacity, businesses have not been proactive in technology for production but still depend on external sources.

Although still facing many challenges, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thuan, Chairman of the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association, said that the industry’s achievements are thanks to taking advantage of free trade agreements, especially the market bloc from the Vietnam – EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)…

In addition, in 2024, many businesses have signed many large export contracts. In addition to traditional markets, footwear enterprises have been expanding to new markets such as the Middle East, South America, Africa, etc.

Among the export markets of the footwear and handbag industry, the US is still the main export market of the Vietnamese footwear industry, accounting for 36.5% of the total footwear export value to the world in the first 11 months of 2024.

Next are the EU markets (accounting for ) China (accounting for 8.5%), Japan (4.7%), Korea (accounting for 2.9%), followed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia. Footwear exports to 16 major countries in the world account for 89% of the total industry turnover.

However, there are still some other export markets that have decreased, or even cannot be exported due to the impact of political conflicts in Russia and Uzbekistan. Therefore, businesses have proactively expanded exports to a number of large and diverse potential consumer markets in South America and the Middle East.

Typically, sports shoes, Vietnam’s strength in export, have also grown rapidly and strongly when exporting to the Middle East market in the short term.

At the industry summary conference, Mr. Thuan shared that the Vietnamese footwear industry has many advantages from abundant labor resources, competitive costs, rich sources of raw materials, investment attraction policies and especially deep integration into the international economy and has attracted many foreign enterprises’ investments.

However, the downside is that although ranked 3rd in the world in footwear production, we are still mainly processing for export, the export turnover of FDI enterprises accounts for about 75% of the export turnover of the whole industry.

By 2025, the leather and footwear industry aims to increase exports by 10% compared to 2024, reaching a turnover of about 29 billion USD.

To achieve this goal, the leather and footwear industry will initially focus on exporting to existing and easy-going markets such as Africa and Asia to have suitable customer bases and increase revenue.

Then, gradually apply higher standards such as green production and green products to conquer demanding markets such as Japan, Europe, the US, etc. Enterprises are also initially approaching major e-commerce sites such as Alibaba, Amazon, etc. to open more consumption channels.

Enterprises need to proactively search for and use environmentally friendly materials, with clear origins and produced according to sustainable processes. Increase the use of domestically produced raw materials to minimize risks and ensure product quality. Apply modern technologies to improve production efficiency, reduce waste and save energy, etc.

Source: VNECONOMY.VN