Denim production needs green growth

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, general secretary of the Viet Nam Textile and Apparel Association, said that around 55 to 60 per cent of the demand for materials for jeans production could be satisfied domestically.

Both domestic and foreign companies in the denim production sector in Viet Nam are investing in advanced manufacturing chains and technologies.

Domestic companies are also focusing on being more involved in the design stage and reducing the number of manual labourers.

While the denim production sector has formed a complete supply chain within Viet Nam’s textile and garment industry and is able to supply materials for domestic production, the number of businesses in this sector is still limited.

The sector has growth potential, but currently denim products only account for around 10 to 20 per cent of Viet Nam’s textile and garment product exports.

Nguyen Dinh Truong, deputy standing chairman of the association, said that considering the trend toward sustainable development, consumers were keen for green production and environmentally friendly products.

“Businesses need to have greener operations and save on raw materials,” he said.

Vietnamese textile and garment businesses had been improving their production methods and were taking part in the global supply chain, he said, adding that this was a good opportunity for foreign companies that want to sell machinery or transfer technology to local denim businesses.

Jordi Juani, Asia division director of the Spain-based Jeanologia, said that if production of denim and jeans in Asia continued to grow, it could pose a major threat towards the environment.

He urged businesses to raise awareness about sustainability and to deal with industry problems, and follow modern retail trends and customers’ tastes, especially for green goods.

Currently, denim products account for around US$80 billion of global industrial good exports.

The conference was held on June 13 as part of Denimsandjeans Viet Nam, an international exhibition on textiles, garment sand machinery held by the association, Denimsandjeans.com and other organisations on June 12-13.