AsemconnectVietnam - In the first half of 2025, Vietnam's leather and footwear exports reached over 14 billion USD, a double-digit increase over the same period last year. Footwear accounted for about 12 billion USD, up by 10.1%; handbags, suitcases, and umbrellas increased by 11.6%.

This result strengthens Vietnam's position in the top 3 producers and top 2 exporters of leather and footwear globally.
Vietnam's leather and footwear industry maintained stable output and export growth in early 2025.
According to data from the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance), the total export turnover of the entire industry in the first 6 months of the year reached over 14 billion USD. Notably, footwear export turnover reached about 12 billion USD, up by 10.1% over the same period, while handbags, suitcases, and umbrellas also recorded an impressive increase of 11.6%, reaching nearly 2.2 billion USD.
This achievement affirms Vietnam's position in the world's footwear supply chain. With an output of about 1.4 billion pairs of shoes per year, Vietnam currently ranks third in the world in footwear production, after China and India. More specifically, our country is firmly in second place globally in exports, with an output of about 1.3 billion pairs per year, after China.
This sustainable growth was supported by many key factors. One is the effective use of tariff incentives from 16 free trade agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam has signed with many major markets. This helps Vietnamese footwear products have a competitive advantage in price when accessing key import markets. In addition, the industry also benefits from an abundant labor force with competitive labor costs, fluctuating around 181-200 USD/month, which is a fundamental advantage to maintain competitiveness in production.
In 2025, the footwear industry aims to increase exports by 10% compared to the previous year, equivalent to a turnover of about 29 billion USD.
To realize this goal, businesses are proactively implementing many breakthrough strategies such as: transforming production models towards green, circular and environmentally friendly, while increasing the localization rate of raw materials. These are strategic steps to meet the increasingly strict requirements from import markets, especially the EU and the US, regarding the origin and sustainability of products. At the same time, businesses are also actively restructuring the market, promoting trade and finding new customers in areas with high consumer demand such as the Middle East, Arabia, and Africa.
The main export markets for Vietnamese footwear and handbags include the US, EU, Korea, China and the UK. Among them, the US market remains the largest, with export turnover in 2024 reaching nearly 8.3 billion USD, up by 15.6%.
Vietnam is currently the main production center of the US shoe company Nike, with about 50% of the total 600 million pairs of Nike shoes produced each year being produced in Vietnam, and 50% of raw materials for Nike's global supply chain also originating from here. This demonstrates the deep integration of the Vietnamese footwear industry into the global value chain and its strategic importance to major brands.
CK
Source: VITIC/ haiquanonline.com.vn