Vietnam lagged behind Bangladesh, China, Turkiye, India and Italy, which together accounted for over 63 per cent of the UK's total apparel imports in the first five months of this year. During the same period last year, the UK's apparel imports from Vietnam were $399.803 million. Vietnam ranked fifth with a 4.78 per cent share of the UK's total apparel imports of $8.360 billion between January and May 2023, according to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro. This indicates that while the value of imports from Vietnam decreased and its ranking fell, its market share increased this year.

Trade data from the last couple of years also indicated that Vietnam has improved its position in trade. In 2023, the UK's total apparel imports amounted to $20.282 billion, of which imports from Vietnam were $1,020.625 million, giving Vietnam a 5.19 per cent share and placing it sixth. In 2022, Vietnam's share was 4.70 per cent, ranking fifth, with the UK importing $1,134.189 million worth of apparel from Vietnam out of a total of $24.121 billion, according to TexPro.

Earlier, the value of apparel imports from Vietnam was $462.338 million in 2021, $504.804 million in 2020, and $706.435 million in 2019. Vietnam's market share was 2.21 per cent in both 2021 and 2020 and 2.82 per cent in 2019. It ranked twelfth in 2021 and 2019 and thirteenth in 2020.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)