Leather industry anticipates favourable year in 2018
The leather-footwear industry expects a good year in 2018 thanks to several favourable factors, according to the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO).
Workers at My Phong Shoe Company in the southern province of Tra Vinh produce shoes for exports. (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - Theleather-footwear industry expects a good year in 2018 thanks to severalfavourable factors, according to Secretary General of the Vietnam Leather,Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO) Phan Thi Thanh Xuan.
She particularly underlined theexpected signing of the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) in mid-2018,under which Vietnam’s shoes products exported to the EU will enjoy a gap of3.5-4.2 percent in tariff compared to other rivals.
Xuan elaborated that when theEVFTA takes effect, the tariff on Vietnam-made sport shoes, which account fortwo thirds of Vietnam’s footwear exports to the EU, will immediately come tozero. Handbag products will also enjoy a similar tariff rate.
“The rules on origin remain thesame as those under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), which is afavourable condition, so I am sure that the flow of orders to Vietnam willincrease,” Xuan said, stressing that the question is how domestic companieswork to optimize the opportunities.
In 2017, the sector earned 18billion USD from exports, up 10.7 percent from 2016.
According to the lateststatistics of the World Footwear Magazine in 2017, Vietnam continued to ranksecond among the top 10 largest footwear exporters, with 1.02 billion pairs ofshoes, equivalent to 7.4 percent of the global footwear supply.
Export of Vietnam’s backpacksand handbags continued to rise, putting the country in the top five exportersof these products in the world today.
Backpacks and handbags earnedVietnam an estimated at 3.3 billion USD last year, accounting for 5.5 percentof global production
Vietnam sets a target of earningbetween 19.5 - 20 billion USD from leather and footwear exports in 2018, up 10percent from 2017.-VNA
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Leather footwear and handbag exports are expected to top 12 billion USD this year, achieving the target, the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) has said.
They were worth 10.4 billion USD last year to rank third in the country's list of key exports, Lefaso Deputy Chairman Diep Thanh Kiet said, adding that the exports were very good in the first half of the year, with footwear exports going up by more than 14 percent and handbags by over 18 percent.
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Workers at My Phong Shoe Company in the southern province of Tra Vinh produce shoes for exports. (Source: VNA) 
