Handicraft industry must compete

Le Ba Ngoc, general secretary of the Vietnam Handicraft Exporters Association, said that poor competitiveness rather than the export market was the bottleneck hindering the industry.

Ngoc said that the Vietnamese handicraft industry mainly produced low value products in large quantities for retail giants like Ikea, Wal Mart and Peer 1 Import. Around 90% of Vietnamese handicraft products were produced following ordered designs and exported under brands of the buyers, according to Ngoc.

He said Vietnam remained struggling in building its strength in the handicraft market.

Setsuko Okura, a handicraft and gift exporter from Japan, was quoted by enternews.vn as saying that handicraft products of Viet Nam were diversified with great potential for exports.

She said that consumption of Vietnamese handicraft products in Japan remained modest as they were considered inappropriate for Japanese consumers who preferred smartly designed products.

Experts also pointed out that the small-scale production failed to ensure the uniformity of handicraft products, adding that the link between trade villages and exporters must be enhanced.

Vu Cam Tu, director of An Do Ceramics Company, said that the development of a production chain in the handicraft industry was important to create products with originality and creativity matching consumer tastes.

The association estimated that the handicraft exports reached a revenue of US$1.9 billion last year, up from US$1.6 billion in 2014.