Vietnam’s ministry of industry and trade has reported the country imported 1,40,000 tons of cotton valued at $244 million this January, up 49.7 per cent in volume and 51.1 per cent in value in January 2017. Economists say Vietnam, whose yarn industry is dependent on imported cotton, has been increasingly importing larger volumes of cotton in recent years to feed its growing textile and garment production and export — its biggest cotton import is from the US followed by India, Australia, Brazil and Cote d'Ivoire.

Vietnam's cotton import surged from 1,50,000 tons in 2005 to nearly 1.3 million tons in 2017. Last year, the country spent over $2.3 billion in importing cotton, a year-on-year rise of 41.2 per cent. Vietnam gained a bonanza of $2.3 billion from exporting garments and textiles in January, up 7.6 per cent on-year, mainly to the US, the EU, Japan and South Korea. The ministry noted the country's garment and textile export turnovers were over $25.9 billion last year, up 8.8 per cent.