Farm producers seek to gain a firm foothold in EU
VOV.VN - Vietnam, despite ranking among the world’s leading exporters of various agricultural products, must work harder to develop the brands of the products in the EU market, according to industry insiders.
Vietnam is now the world’s second largest coffee and rice exporter, and the fifth largest seafood exporter. However, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, reveals Vietnam made up only 0.1% of the total of EUR40 billion worth of agricultural products and vegetables the EU imported from its partners worldwide in the first four months of this year.
In other words, Vietnamese enterprises have yet to fully take advantage of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) which was effective in August 2020 to make further inroads into this demanding market.
During a recent webinar discussing Vietnamese exports to the Netherlands, Nga Dang, director of the AB Consul, pointed out that there is almost no presence of Vietnamese branded agricultural products in supermarkets in the Netherlands, or even in the EU market as a whole. She attributed this situation to the fact that the country mainly exports raw agricultural products, while importers primarily use them as mixing materials, leading to no brand labelled.
Sharing this perspective, Hien Pham, director of the LPT Import-Export Company, said in the Dutch market, several businesses import the world’s best rice varieties produced in Vietnam and then to mix them with 50% of other varieties of rice for sale.
The move has negatively impacted the Vietnamese rice brand, therefore making it difficult for Vietnamese enterprises to export rice to the EU in the future, particularly due to challenges in terms of product quality and price competition, said Hien Pham.
Developing a strong brand for Vietnamese products in the EU is a must, stressed Nga Dang, who also admitted it is difficult for a business to build its own brand in highly competitive markets like the EU.
Local firms have no choice but to strengthen their connectivity to meet the goal, she suggested.
Other experts also proposed utilising separate e-commerce platforms for Vietnamese goods, a move which can support businesses in deploying export procedures so they can sell their products in the Netherlands and the EU in general under the business' main name.
