Vietnam is the largest cotton importer of Australia. Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Vietnam is the largest cotton importer of Australia with 38.8% of the market share, according to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) which predicted that Vietnam will hold this position in following years.

Thanks to a number of multilateral free trade agreements, trade between Vietnam and Australia has increased in recently, reaching 15.7 billion USD in 2022, making Australia the seventh trade partner of Vietnam. Of the total, Vietnam’s exports hit 5.6 billion USD, up 26.2% year on year.

A report from the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) said that last year, Vietnam shipped 44.5 billion USD worth of garment and textile products abroad, a rise of about 11% year on year, becoming the third largest exporter of the product in the world after China and Bangladesh.

Along with garments, the country also exported over 2.5 billion USD worth of fabric, nearly 5 billion USD worth of yarn, and 1.5 billion USD worth of garment accessories in the year.

In 2022, Vietnam spent 3.3 billion USD on importing 1.7 million tonnes of cotton from 11 countries, with Australia standing at the third position.

According to Austrade, Vietnam’s cotton imports from Australia rose from 78 million AUD (50.76 million USD) in 2020 to 1.69 billion AUD in 2022, mostly thanks to competitive prices and geographical distance.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that Vietnam and Australia are members of at least three common free trade agreements (FTAs), including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The pact has helped promote Vietnam’s exports to Australia, especially farm produce.

Currently, the three FTAs supporting Australia’s cotton exports to Vietnam are the ASEAN-Australia, New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA), the CPTPP and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). They enable Australia’s raw cottons to enjoy preferential tax rates in Vietnam.

Rob Cairns, Export Marketing Consultant of the Australian Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA), said that the Australian industry wishes to build deeper relations with the local textile and apparel industry as demand is anticipated to grow in the coming years./.