In the first months of the year, the textile and garment industry suffered from the lack of input materials because Chinese partners were busy struggling with the epidemic in their country. Later, it faced a sharp fall in demand from import countries as the epidemic began devastating Europe and the US.

According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), textile and garment export turnover in April 2020 decreased by 20 percent compared with March.

In the first four months of the year, export turnover of the industry was $10.63 billion, a decrease of 6.6 percent, while import turnover was $6.39 billion, a decrease of 8.76 percent compared with the same period last year.

Only face mask and medical protective clothing producers can earn money at this moment. As of April, Vietnam had exported 415 million face masks, worth $6.3 million to the markets which were the hotbeds of the epidemic, such as Japan, South Korea, the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.

However, the figure of $6.3 million, as commented by Truong Van Cam, deputy chair of Vitas, is insignificant compared with the annual export turnover of $40 billion of the textile and garment industry.

In the first four months of the year, export turnover of the industry was $10.63 billion, a decrease of 6.6 percent, while import turnover was $6.39 billion, a decrease of 8.76 percent compared with the same period last year.

The government of Vietnam gave considerable support by loosening export conditions, thus helping Vietnam’s face masks get customs clearance quickly.

However, Vietnamese producers have been warned that it would not be easy in the time to come to export face masks to the markets as the epidemic has been step by step controlled.

Vitajean, a mask producer, said it is difficult to satisfy the requirements and procedures set by import countries. It has to provide transparent information about products, including fabric structure, chemical content, and antibacterial results.

The EU and US will tighten requirements on the quality of face masks. The products to the EU would need to satisfy CE standards and products to the US will have to meet FDA standards.

They have also been warned that Vietnam would have to compete with other countries in the region which also have strength in the textile and garment industry such as China and Indonesia.

According to Dinh Ngoc Long, an expert on CE standard certificates, in order to get CE certificates, Vietnamese-made face masks and medical protective clothing must satisfy three requirements – safety, good for health, and friendly to the environment.

Kim Chi

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