Specifically, Before the outbreak of COVID-19 the number of masks, protective clothing and gloves (collectively referred to as PPE group) export from Vietnam to the US was quite modest when the whole year of 2019 was only USD 59 million.
However, due to the anti-epidemic demand, product demand has increased about
20 times, the market size of the PPE product in the world is equivalent to US $ 1,000 billion and Vietnam is emerging as one of the leading suppliers "- Mr. Nguyen Tien, Head of Market Connecting Component, USAIDS LinkSME project, said.
This information was shared by Mr. Tien at the Workshop to enhance production and export capacity of materials and equipment to prevent and control epidemics, which took place on the morning of 23-5 in Hanoi.
According to this expert, just 2 days ago, there were 5 million PPE products from Vietnam exported to the US, and currently the largest order connected by the project is worth up to 60 million protective clothing households export to Europe. However, the market is still in shortage of input materials, investment in the line is also costly and transportation costs are 3-4 times more expensive than before.
If businesses start participating in the market, they should be cautious "- Mr. Tien recommended.
However, businesses have been manufacturing and exporting this product, Mr. Tien also said that many businesses do not have enough CE (European standards) and FDA (US standards) to export, There are businesses with certification the evaluation organization has not been widely recognized worldwide.
Mr. Tien also pointed out some errors that PPE exporters often encounter, It is a certification not write in English, certificates / test methods according to Vietnamese standards instead of international standards. The certificate is sent in the form of photos but the image quality is not good, not professional, not accompanied with detailed specifications of the product.
Because the market demand for PPE products in the world is still very high, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Director of Medical Equipment and Works Department, Ministry of Health, the co-organizer of the workshop said the Ministry of Health, Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality is guiding and solving technical difficulties, in order to accelerate the export of PPE products from Vietnam to the world.