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Follow market, says expert
Vietnamese enterprises needed to remain on top of the changes occurring in the EU market to ensure they can continue to export there, delegates told a meeting held in Dong Nai on Thursday.
Nguyen Canh Cuong, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's European Market Department, said the EU was a huge market with a population of nearly 500 million.
It had been among Viet Nam's largest markets in the past but exporting to the EU was becoming difficult due to its changing safety – and environment-related policies, he said.
Consumers too were raising the bar for producers with regard to social and environmental responsibility, he added.
Le Van Dao, Deputy Chairman of the Viet Nam Textile and Garment Association, agreed, saying garment and textile exports were now required to meet higher quality, safety and environmental requirements.
Vietnamese companies had begun to invest in making products safe and environmentally friendly, he said.
Dong Phuong Knitwear Company, for instance, made fabric from bamboo fiber, and Dong Nai Garment Company produced aseptic clothes from carbon fiber, he said.
He called on garment firms to focus on improving design to become more competitive and to "export genuine Vietnamese products, not outsourced ones."
Le Ba Ngoc, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Handicraft Exporters Association, said consumers in the EU were no longer fond of common decorative products and preferred unusual ones, and Vietnamese firms must understand this trend.
Due to the global economic crisis, two-way trade between Viet Nam and the EU plunged by almost a third to US$14.8 billion last year.
Viet Nam exports rubber, handicrafts, seafood, coffee, leather shoes, pepper and tea to the EU and imports machinery, steel, fertilisers and medicines.
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