Hanoi (VNS/VNA) -🦂 Footwearexports to the US have been forecast to struggle in the remaining months ofthis year due to falling demand, though it recorded a 10 percent increase inrevenue in the first quarter of the year.  

Footwear Distributors andRetailers of America President Matt Priest was quoted by Cong Thuong (Industryand Trade) online newspaper as saying that the COVID-19 pandemic causedunemployment in the US to rise and income to fall, hurting consumption. Demand for footwear products inthe US saw declines in January-May and the downward trend was forecast tocontinue for the remaining months of this year, he said. He cited statistics thatfootwear sales in the US dropped by nearly 30 percent in March against the sameperiod last year while footwear imports fell to the lowest level since March,2017. Vietnam’s footwear exports to the USdecreased by nearly 20 percent in April. He forecast it will be difficult to see a significant increasein Vietnam’s footwear exports to the USin the rest of this year. Still, there are opportunities forVietnamese footwear producers to expand exports in the US. From 2003 to date, he said thatwhile the US’s footwear imports from other countries saw downward trends,imports from Vietnamincreased. After the COVID-19 pandemic,the global supply chain is beingrebuilt with a trend of moving out of China. Figures showed China accounted for90 percent of the US’ footwear market 12 years ago but now its marketshare was reduced to 7 percent and importers tended to look for more supplysources. Diep Thanh Kiet, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and HandbagAssociation, said that it is adifficult time for Vietnam’sfootwear exports to the US due to low demand. The US market also has highrequirements about corporate social responsibility and environmental protectionin footwear production, Kiet said,urging producers to pay attention to these requirements to expand exportsto the US. Kiet also said that producers must focuson designs and quality to satisfy consumers’ tastes. Despite the pandemic, Vietnam’s footwear exports to the US rose 10 percentto reach 1.56 billion USD inrevenue in the first quarter of this year. The US was the largest footwearexport market of Vietnam withrevenue of 6.65 billion USD in2019, a year-on-year increase of 14.2 percent. Vietnam exported 18.3 billion USD worth of footwear products in total lastyear, up 12.8 percent against 2018. Made-in-Vietnam footwear products were present in morethan 100 countries worldwide. The country hopes to earn 20billion USD from footwear exports thisyear./.