Exploiting the potential of Vietnamese handicrafts in the international market

Vietnam’s handicraft products have great potential for development, especially in the international market. In the coming time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will implement many programs and solutions to develop sustainably and add value to handicraft products.

Bright future for wood and handicraft exports

Support standardization to promote handicraft exports

It is expected that the export turnover of handicraft products can reach 4 billion USD by 2025. Photo: N.H.

It is expected that the export turnover of handicraft products can reach 4 billion USD by 2025. Photo: N.H.

Towards a turnover of 4 billion USD by 2025

Vietnamese handicraft products are always in high demand in the international market. In recent years, the export growth rate is quite high, about 10% per year on average, contributing significantly to the increase in export turnover of the country.

In 2019, the export turnover of handicrafts reached 2.35 billion USD, of which there are a number of items with great export value such as: ceramic products reaching 539 million USD; rattan, bamboo and sedge carpet products reached USD 484 million; embroidery and hand-woven products reached 139 million USD.

In the context of the Covid-19 epidemic, the export turnover of handicrafts still maintained a good growth rate. Specifically, in the first 7 months of 2020, the export of ceramic products reached 309 million USD, up 3.4% over the same period in 2019; rattan, bamboo and sedge carpet products reached 250 million USD, up 10.8%; embroidery and hand-woven products reached $90 million, up 11%.

Developing rural industries and craft villages has created jobs and incomes for over 2.3 million rural workers, contributing to the restructuring of rural labor in the direction of shifting from low-income agricultural workers to low-income agricultural workers. occupations with higher incomes.

The income level of laborers in professions is 2 to 3 times higher than the income of agricultural workers. The percentage of poor households in the area with occupations is much lower than the poverty rate in the whole country.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam assessed that Vietnam’s handicraft industry has great potential for development, demonstrating the creativity of Vietnamese people. “The handicraft items are both a product and a work of art, so they have a very high value,” said Mr. Nam.

Meanwhile, the consumer trend is increasingly moving towards environmentally friendly products, which are derived from natural materials such as rattan, bamboo, sedge, water hyacinth, etc. are facing great opportunities to expand their markets and grow exports when recently major importing countries in the world such as the US and the European Union have imposed higher tariff barriers on Chinese products. Country.

Along with that, the reduction of taxes from free trade agreements and measures to strengthen the capacity of exporting enterprises, improve product designs, strengthen trade promotion, and comply with standards. international … is expected to boost the export growth of Vietnamese handicrafts to over 12%/year, export turnover can reach 4 billion USD by 2025.

Promote the development of raw material areas, add value

Despite its great growth potential, Vietnam’s handicraft industry still faces many problems and limitations. Accordingly, the infrastructure has not been synchronously invested, degraded, lacks infrastructure works for tourism development, preserving the cultural space of craft villages. The production development is also small, lack of linkage between actors in the value chain; limited basic technical training, innovative design ideas and new product development. Trade promotion capacity is still limited.

Especially, the requirements of international standard conformity are increasing, while the number of Vietnamese enterprises that meet the standards and standards is very small. The role of industry linkages of professional associations is still weak, there is a lack of cohesion between associations and businesses, and between businesses and businesses.

Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam also pointed out that the issue of raw materials for the handicraft industry is also facing many difficulties. Typically, the price of dried water hyacinth has now reached 27,000 VND/kg, but it is also very scarce; Land resources for making ceramic products are also increasingly depleted due to the impact of urbanization…

Therefore, in the coming time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will develop concentrated raw material areas to ensure the source of raw materials at the place of production of trades and craft villages. In which, major focus is on the production of key products such as bamboo and rattan, embroidery, ceramics, etc., in localities where conditions are available.

Mr. Le Duc Thinh, Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation – Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also informed that in the near future the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will review and assess the status of rural industries and craft villages. currently to build criteria, evaluate and classify trade villages; complete the construction of a project on conservation and development of craft villages in the 2021-2025 period and submit it to the Prime Minister for approval for implementation. At the same time, promote research and