Vietnam’s garments exports has been growing steadily in the past 10 years to Europe and North America. Early warnings at the beginning of 2017 suggested US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership would narrow the pathway for garments from Vietnam. After struggling for the first six months, garment companies scored a record high of exports to the US toward the end of the year. Garments topped the export list in 2017 and give more hope for the country’s export prospects in the coming year.

Vietnam’s traditional garment destinations are: Asean, Eastern Europe, the EU, Japan and South Korea. Vietnam’s fashion industry has been growing, developing the energy to let designers leap and flourish. If a decade ago, Vietnamese consumers preferred fast fashion imported from China, now they tend to turn to domestic products.

However, garment companies have not been able to establish a firm foothold in the country. Export-oriented companies who want to set up sales boutiques have to deal with PR, marketing campaigns and after sales service.

Another reason contributing to the less secure production output is the material resources. Domestic fabric production makes only 2.3 billion meters a year. Since the industry requires 8.7 billion meters to function, the balance has to come from imports.