Vietnam's Textile Industry Depends Heavily On Cotton Imports.

The textile industry is a pillar industry in Vietnam.

Domestic cotton production is extremely low, which can only meet 1% of its domestic production demand, and the cotton needed for the garment and textile industry is heavily dependent on imports.

According to the August 31st report, in the first seven months of this year, Vietnam's cotton imports rose by 34% to a record 458 thousand tons, and the total value of imports of cotton increased by 36.3% to 919 million US dollars over the same period.

Ho Thi Kim Thoa, Vietnam's minister of industry and trade, said that the total area of cultivated land in Vietnam was reduced from 30 thousand hectares to 10 thousand hectares, resulting in a significant decline in cotton production.

It is the main raw material needed for industrial development, and Vietnam needs more than 400 thousand tons of cotton to meet the rising demand for domestic industrial development.

At present, the raw material cotton for Vietnam's garment industry will still be imported from abroad.

Although the government has approved the adoption of a cotton growing development project (2015 to 2020), cotton growers still face various difficulties.

Because of the higher income from planting other crops, more and more Vietnamese farmers are no longer paying attention to cotton planting.

To this end, the Vietnam National Textile and garment development group will set up a cotton plantation to ensure the basic supply of raw materials, and provide experience guidance for farmers, and actively encourage domestic farmers to expand the scale of cotton production.

In recent years, Vietnam's garment and textile industry has developed rapidly, but the raw materials needed for production are still overly dependent on foreign supply, and the high price must be paid for it.

It is reported that most of the raw materials actually originated from Africa, but most Vietnamese clothing manufacturers must buy these raw materials through wholesalers or intermediaries in France, Switzerland and India.

If Vietnam can directly link up with cotton suppliers in African countries and supply them directly, it can not only bypass intermediaries, but also reduce the price of Vietnamese clothing products and improve the global competitiveness of Vietnamese clothing.

Vietnam's relevant industrial institutions are currently taking action to consult with African countries about cotton supply.

There are mainly 55 cotton procurement markets in Africa, and Vietnam now imports cotton from 19 of the 19 markets, including Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Insiders say that the quality of African cotton is actually quite good, and the price is reasonable and suitable for producing yarn.

Vietnam's textile industry now has 5 million 100 thousand units.

It can produce about 700 thousand tons of spinning per year.

If the supply of raw materials can be obtained directly from more African countries, the Vietnamese garment and textile industry will be able to maintain a fast and sustainable development for a long time.