Vietnamese garment companies have signed deals to export hundreds of millions of face masks to the US and the EU. Hanoi-based Garment 10 Jsc (Garco 10) has received orders for 400 million medical masks and 20 million cloth masks from buyers in the US and Germany.

TNG Investment and Trading Jsc in the northern Thai Nguyen Province have been exporting cloth masks to France, Belgium and Germany for almost a month. The company is now working on administrative procedures to gift 500 cloth masks to the New York Police Department. It is also planning to produce medical masks from mid-May since there is huge demand for them, he said.

Shifting from garments to masks allows them to keep production going and pay employees, somewhat mitigating the losses caused by canceled orders, which are estimated at over $470 million. Garco 10 CEO Than Duc Viet said mask exports account for almost 30 per cent of the company’s revenues this year. TNG also saw domestic sales rise 10 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, mostly from masks.

The Foreign Trade Agency said that Vietnam has the potential to become a major global mask exporter. It can make at least 200 million masks a month, and some producers have been able to make their own raw materials to reduce dependence on imports.