Vietnam was the third-largest apparel supplier for Australia, with shipments valued at $425.003 million during January-September 2023. The latter imported 7.24 per cent of its apparel from Vietnam during this period. China and Bangladesh were the first and second-largest apparel supplying countries, respectively, for Australia's total imports, which amounted to $5.869 billion. 

However, Australia's apparel imports slowed down from Vietnam and the world at large. Inbound shipments totalled $6.298 billion during January-September 2022, representing a decrease of 6.81 per cent compared to the same period the previous year. Nevertheless, imports from Vietnam increased by 9.2 per cent to $425.003 million during January-September 2023, up from $389.190 million in the same period last year, as reported by Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro. 

Australia's apparel imports from Vietnam reached $525.920 million in 2022, while its total apparel imports from the world were recorded at $8.230 billion last year. Vietnam held the third position in terms of trade volume. 

The shipments from Vietnam to Australia were valued at $225.082 million in January-September 2019, decreasing by 4.4 per cent to $215.185 million during the same period in 2020. They then surged by 41.69 per cent to $304.893 million in January-September 2021 and further increased by 27.65 million to $389.190 million in January-September 2022. 

During the first three quarters of 2023, trousers and shorts dominated Australia's garment imports from Vietnam, with a value of $107.222 million, contributing 28.25 per cent to the total apparel imports during the period. Among the top five garment products imported by Australia were shirts ($58.047 million, 15.29 per cent), T-shirts ($36.454 million, 9.60 per cent), jerseys ($34.666 million, 9.13 per cent), and innerwear ($32.310 million, 8.51 per cent), according to TexPro. 

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)