Vietnam will likely earn $20 billion from garment and textile export in 2013, surpassing the target of $19 billion set for the year by the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association (Vitas).

According to Vitas deputy chairman Pham Xuan Hong, despite many challenges in production and business, the textile and garment industry was one of two industries exceeding $10 billion in export value in the first 10 months of this year.

Latest data released by the General Statistics Office on Friday showed the garment export reached $14.8 billion in the first 10 months of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 18.7 percent.

Hong said the industry was expected to achieve an annual growth rate of over 15 percent in export value for the whole year due to the government's export promotion policies and the textile and garment enterprises' efforts.

In addition, the localization rate for export products has increased to 40-50 percent against the previous year's 20-30 percent.

That helped imports of raw materials and sub-materials to decline, an advantage for the textile and garment industry in export activities once Vietnam joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement, according to the association.

However, experts said local garment producers must compete with rivals from other countries, such as Bangladesh, India and Cambodia, in export pricing due to higher salaries in Vietnam than other countries.

Local producers have also faced difficulties in sourcing and importing materials and sub-materials for making textile and garment products due to competition with other countries in the region.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, the United States, the EU, Japan and South Korea are the biggest importers of Vietnamese textiles and garments, with exports to those markets accounting for 49 percent, 15 percent, 12 percent and nine percent of the industry's export revenue, respectively.

Vietnam has around 4,000 garment factories employing about 2.5 million workers.