Vietnam still facing rising production costs

16/09/2011
Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) general secretary, Nguyen Thi Tong, has said the industry in her country is still being affected by high raw material costs, a lack of local suppliers and rising labour costs.

She said the cost of production is rising faster than the value of finished product, challenging continued growth in value and she called on Vietnamese manufacturers to improve the quality of their products and increase their promotion of them as ways of easing the pressure.

“In the first eight months of this year, export values reached $4.1 billion out of an expected $6 billion for the whole year,” Ms Nguyen said in a recent interview. She added that export orders remain healthy, but warned that increases in production costs may harm the result in the months ahead.