HANOI, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam gained over 9.4 billion U.S. dollars from exporting garments and textiles in the first four months of this year, up 9.8 percent year-on-year, according to the country's Ministry of Industry and Trade on Wednesday.

In April alone, the country raked in 2.3 billion U.S. dollars from selling the products offshore, rising 7.1 percent.

Between January and April, largest importers of Vietnamese garments and textiles included the United States, Japan, the European Union and South Korea.

The revenue surge was mainly attributable to strong market demand, with many orders already placed for the first six months of this year or even the whole year, said the ministry.

Vietnam's garment and textile export turnovers may reach 40 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association forecast.

Vietnam, which is among the world's five biggest exporters and producers of garments and textiles, posted garment and textile export turnovers of over 30.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 16.6 percent from 2017.

However, Vietnam had to spend more than 12.9 billion U.S. dollars importing cloth last year, up 13.5 percent, the association said, noting that most of local cloth has yet to satisfy quality requirements of the country's key garment export markets.