Handbag exports have grown impressively with most markets reporting high increases in the first five months of this year.
According to statistics from the General Customs Department, theexport revenues of suitcases, handbags and umbrellas in the January-Mayperiod reached 744.58 million USD, up 22.22 percent against the sameperiod last year. The total turnover of these products was only 1.518billion USD in 2012 and 1.33 billion USD in 2011.
Vietnam’s leading handbag importer was the US with a value of317.63 million USD, representing a 31 percent increase year on year. Thevalue for May alone was 86.84 million USD, up 9 percent from theprevious month.
Japan was the second biggestmarket buying 93.28 million USD worth of handbag products in the period,an increase of 32.7 percent year on year. Germany followed with54.53 million USD, up 21.59 percent; Belgium - 40.93 million USD, up11.8 percent; and the Republic of Korea - 28.01 million USD, up26.6 percent.
Other markets which generated over 10million USD in turnover for the sector included France (23.3 millionUSD), Holland (22.1 million USD), China (18.7 million USD), theUK (17.1 million USD), Canada (13.8 million USD), Spain(12.02 million USD) and Italy (11 million USD).
Besides these major markets, the handbag sector saw a sharp increase ofexport turnover in Hong Kong (up 56.76 percent), Sweden (up 56.14percent), Malaysia (55.27 percent), and Thailand (54.66percent).
The Vietnam Leather and FootwearAssociation (Lefaso) has set a target of 1.7 billion USD in briefcaseand handbag revenue this year and expects an export growth rate of 30percent in the coming years.
Nguyen Duc Thuan,President of Lefaso, said that eight out of ten global handbag brandnames have transferred their orders to Vietnam . This is a goodopportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to enhance their internationalprestige.
In the past, FDI enterprises produced thebulk of handbag exports. Two years ago, domestic businesses began to getinvolved in the sector. Since 2011, the handbag, suitcase, umbrella andwallet producers have succeeded in earning more than 1 billion USD inannual revenue.
According to Lefaso, the domesticdemand for handbags and knapsacks rose to 25 million units last year.But only 15 million products were made of local materials. For luxuryhandbags, Vietnam still depends on imported materials.-VNA