AsemconnectVietnam - According to preliminary statistics, Vietnam's leather and footwear export turnover in August of 2026 was estimated at over $2.45 billion, a 9.26% decrease from July of 2026 but a 2.72% increase compared to August of 2025.

In the first eight months of 2026, the country's leather and footwear exports totaled $19.54 billion, up 2.43% year-on-year. This represents an improvement over the 2.11% growth rate seen in the first half of 2025 and a slight gain over the 1.5% growth recorded in the first five months; however, it remains significantly slower than the 7.83% growth rate observed during the same eight-month period in 2025 compared to 2024.
Specifically, the exports of footwear of all types were estimated at $16.20 billion, up by 0.74% year-on-year, maintaining the sluggish growth momentum seen in the first half of the year (and lagging far behind the 7.56% growth recorded during the same period of 2025 compared to 2024). Meanwhile, the exports of handbags, suitcases, and umbrellas reached $3.34 billion, an 11.51% increase year-on-year, showing solid improvement over the 10.78% growth in the first half of 2026 and the 9.27% growth recorded during the same eight-month period of 2025 compared to 2024. Thus, the export growth rate for handbags, suitcases, and umbrellas continues to accelerate, serving as a key driver of export growth for the leather and footwear industry.
Export situation in July of 2026
Vietnam's leather and footwear industry maintained its growth momentum during the first months of 2026. While the key product group – footwear, showed signs of slowing growth, the segment comprising handbags, suitcases, and umbrellas surged, becoming a driving force for the industry's overall export value.
In the first seven months of 2026, the country's exports in this sector reached US$17.09 billion, a 2.36% increase year-on-year. This represents a slight improvement over the 1.5% growth recorded in the first five months but remains significantly lower than the 9.79% growth seen during the same period of 2025 compared to 2024. Specifically, footwear exports totaled US$14.18 billion, up by 0.7% (a slight improvement from the 0.18% growth in the first five months), accounting for 82.99% of the industry's total export value. Meanwhile, the exports of handbags, suitcases, and umbrellas reached US$2.9 billion, up by 11.3% year-on-year, a rapid improvement from the 8.67% growth in the first five months, representing 17.01% of the total export value.
The exports to the United States recorded the highest value and the fastest growth rate with US$6.9 billion, an increase of 8.58% compared to the same period of 2025. The US market's influence continued to grow, with its share of total exports rising from 38.09% in 2025 to 40.41% in the first seven months of 2026.
The exports to the EU ranked second in value, exceeding US$4.2 billion, an increase of 3.62%. Notably, Vietnam's footwear exports to niche or medium-sized markets within the EU saw breakthrough growth, such as a 10.14% increase for France, 60.52% for Luxembourg, and 33.20% for Denmark, whereas exports to Germany fell by 4.81% compared to the same period of 2025.
The declines in exports to Japan and China have driven a downward trend in exports to CPTPP and RCEP markets, despite the benefits offered by these free trade agreements. Specifically, the exports to CPTPP markets dropped by 3.07%, and exports to RCEP markets fell by 7.07%.
Overall, the structure of Vietnam's footwear exports during the first seven months of 2026 showed an increasing reliance on the US and EU markets. The decline in nearby markets that are members of the CPTPP and RCEP (particularly China) suggests that footwear enterprises need to re-evaluate their strategies for leveraging tariff preferences under these agreements to diversify risk.
Regarding footwear products:
In July of 2026, Vietnam's footwear exports reached US$2.23 billion, up by 3.1% from June of 2026 and 1.61% from July of 2025. For the first seven months of the year, the total footwear exports reached US$14.18 billion, a 0.7% increase year-on-year. While this marks an improvement over the 0.18% growth recorded in the first five months, the pace remains slower than the 0.87% growth seen in the first quarter of the year.
The slowdown in Vietnam's footwear exports was primarily attributed to significant declines in shipments to markets such as China, Japan, the UK, and Mexico. However, growth in exports to the two largest markets - the US and the EU, helped maintain a slight upward trend in overall export value during this period.
The exports to the US served as the primary growth driver for Vietnam's footwear sector, accounting for the largest share and demonstrating a very high growth rate. During this period, footwear exports to the US rose by 6.57% year-on-year, an improvement over the 5.94% growth recorded in the first five months and significantly higher than the overall growth rate of 0.7% with US$5.57 billion, representing 39.31% of the total export value for this category, up from 37.15% during the same period last year.
The exports to the EU totaled US$3.58 billion, a 3.03% increase year-on-year, accounting for 25.26% of total export value, an increase from 24.69% in the same period last year. Notably, the exports to the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Spain increased, while exports to Belgium and Germany declined.
In July of 2026, the country's exports of handbags, suitcases, and umbrellas reached US$472.12 million, a 0.7% decrease from of June 2026 but a 14.29% increase compared to July of 2025. Accumulated exports for the first seven months of 2026 exceeded US$2.9 billion, up by 11.3% year-on-year; this represents a significant improvement over the 8.67% growth rate recorded in the first five months and far outpaces the growth of the footwear sector. This performance was driven largely by double-digit export growth to markets such as the US, China, the UK, Australia, and Mexico, alongside sustained growth in the EU market and a positive recovery in exports to ASEAN and Taiwan (following declines in the first half of the year), even as exports to Japan, Canada, the UAE, and Russia declined.
Thus, export results for the first eight months of 2026 indicate that Vietnam's leather and footwear exports continue to grow, albeit under pressure from declines in certain key markets. Meanwhile, market and product structures are shifting toward a greater reliance on the US market, emerging markets, and the handbag, suitcase, and umbrella product category. Forecasts for the final four months of 2026 suggest that exports will likely maintain their growth trend and improve slightly compared to the beginning of the year, driven by seasonal factors, specifically, year-end consumer demand and export orders that have shown signs of recovery since the second quarter.
Source: VITIC