Export opportunities for Vietnamese processed foods increase

Mr. Do Thang Hai, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), said that although the Covid-19 pandemic was complicated, the export turnover of agricultural, aquatic, and seafood products in 2020 still increased by 1.6 percent year-on-year, exceeding US$30 billion, at the Vietnam International Food Industry Exhibition 2020 (Foodexpo 2020) organized by the Department of Trade Promotion under the MoIT on December 9.
The MoIT has still made efforts to organize direct and online trade promotion activities to support enterprises to maintain business cooperation, promote trade, and expand export markets. Although Foodexpo 2020 is also organized online for the first time, it has attracted the participation of 300 enterprises. Through the online technology platform, enterprises between countries can easily connect, exchange, and sign trade cooperation agreements. According to Mr. Do Thang Hai, this Foodexpo has seen the participation of many enterprises from the Canadian market, so domestic counterparts need to take full advantage of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to increase market penetration in member countries, especially the Canadian market.

Sharing the same point of view, Ms. Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion, and International Trade, said that two-way exports between Vietnam and Canada reach $25 billion per year and maintain an annual growth rate of 25 percent. The food and foodstuff processing industry in Vietnam will have more opportunities to expand its market share in Canada as the consumers favor Vietnamese products.

However, to enter the Canadian market in particular and the fastidious market in the world in general sustainably, exporters must standardize their production processes and ensure food safety and hygiene standards right from the stage of cultivation and raising to harvesting, processing, packaging, and transporting to consumers. Especially, they must apply digital technology to meet the requirements of traceability and transparency of product information of consumers. In the opposite direction, more than 40 Canadian enterprises operating in the field of foodstuff, seafood, beverages, and functional foods processing are looking for opportunities to penetrate deeply into the Vietnamese market.

On the same day, the National Agricultural Extension Center, in association with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ha Tinh Province, organized a forum on orange production associated with sustainable product consumption in the North Central region.

At the forum, management agencies, research agencies, enterprises, cooperatives, and production model owners commit to exchanging and sharing experiences, and at the same time, offer solutions to develop the growing areas, improve quality, and ensure safety, as well as solutions on linking sustainable product consumption, and avoiding the situation of ‘good harvest, bad price’.

Other news