Leather shoe exports witness 16% plunge

16 Dec '09

2 min read

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in first 11 months of the ongoing year, Vietnam's leather shoe exports touched US $ 3.57 billion in terms of value, a y-o-y drop of 16 percent. Considering these figures, it has been estimated that the shoe exports for the month of December would bring in $300-$400 million, registering an annual turnover of around $4 billion, lower than the projected target amount of $4.7 billion.

Leather footwear sector of the country has experienced stiff competition from countries such as Brazil, India, Bangladesh and Cambodia. In addition to this, a number of industry investors have shifted their operations to Cambodia, since the country has been granted the EU's General System of Preference (GSP) and does not pay anti-dumping taxes on its leather-capped shoe, said a Ministry official.

An expert said, since 2007, the Vietnamese leather shoes sector has been paying 10 percent EU anti-dumping tax, and as EU removed the industry from its GSP at the beginning of this year, the export tax has reached 16 percent. This export tax will affect the country's leather export turnover, and would bring it down by at least 30 percent, said a financial analyst.

Last year's export turnover of Vietnamese shoe industry, which ranks fifth in the world, was $4.8 billion. The country has over 500 shoe manufacturing companies that are creating job opportunities for around 600,000 workers.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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