Exports to EU may surpass 10 billion USD in 2008

Exports to EU may surpass 10 billion USD in 2008

07/01/2008 -- 4:37 PM

Ha Noi (VNA) – The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has predicted that Viet Nam ’s export to the European Union (EU) will reach 10.4 billion USD in 2008, a year-on-year rise of 23.5 percent.

High increases are forecast for textiles and garments, footwear, seafood, wooden products and coffee. In particular, footwear is expected to remain the country’s major staple with export revenues estimated at 2.7 billion USD.

The EU is currently the world’s second largest importer of Viet Nam ’s footwear after the US . It bought 2.1 billion USD worth of footwear from Viet Nam in 2007, representing 7.2 percent of its total import value of the item. In recent years, the EU’s footwear import reaches 29 billion USD each year.

Although textiles and garments are expected to bring home around 1.65 billion USD, it will be considerably affected by the EU’s removal of quota for China ’s textiles and garments this year.

The EU is also the biggest consumer of Vietnamese coffee, accounting for around half of the country’s coffee export value. The nation’s coffee export to the EU is forecast to fetch 820 million USD this year, a slight reduction compared with 2007 due to the decrease in domestic production output.

Meanwhile, seafood export to the EU is expected to reach 1.15 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 25 percent, and wooden products, around 780 million USD, a year-on-year surge of 30 percent.

To fully tap the EU market’s potential, the MoIT advised export businesses to strengthen their foothold in Germany , the UK , France , the Netherlands and Belgium while seeking more outlets in new EU markets like the Czech Republic , Hungary and Poland .

In 2007, Viet Nam earned 8.5 billion USD from exports to the EU, a year-on-year rise of 19 percent, accounting for 18 percent of the country’s total trade turnover.-Enditem
(VNAgency)