As per the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the country has imported cotton worth over $2 billion during the first eight months of 2018. Of this, imports from the US exceeded $1 billion. This increase in cotton imports was attributed to growth in garment and textile exports, as Vietnam depends on nearly 100 per cent imported cotton materials. Vietnam plans to buy over $3 billion worth of cotton this year, up $700-800 million against the previous year. The country has also set a target of earning $34-35 billion from garment and textile exports.

Last year, the textile and garment industry gained a year-on-year increase of 10.23 per cent in export value to $31 billion, beating its target set at the beginning of the year of $30 billion.