Vietnam's garment exports to hit 25 bln USD in 2014: forecast

Vietnam's garment and textile exports are likely to exceed the annual target by 16 percent to hit 25 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, according to the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (VINATEX) on Monday.

In the first nine months of 2014, garment exports fetched in 17. 2 billion U.S. dollars, up 19 percent year on year.

Traditional markets remained on a high growth trend. Garment exports to South Korea climbed 32 percent in the period, while that of the EU and the United States went up 19 and 15 percent, respectively.

India has now replaced China to become the largest cotton supplier for Vietnam, behind the United States.

In the first nine months, Vietnam imported 550,000 tons of cotton valued at 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, including 500 million U. S. dollars of cotton from the United States and 300 million U.S. dollars imports from India.

In 2013, Vietnam pocketed 17.9 billion U.S. dollars from garment and textile exports, up 18.6 percent year on year, out of the country's total export value of 132.2 billion U.S. dollars, according to the General Statistics Office.