Northern Europe a promising market for Vietnamese farm produce: Experts
Thanks to high demand, Northern Europe is a promising land for Vietnamese agricultural products, according to experts who also underlined the need for domestic firms to ensure product standards to win this potential market.
According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden, Vietnam mostly exported shrimp and frozen fish fillets to Northern Europe. Particularly, Vietnamese tra fish and black tiger shrimp have won a large market share in Northern Europe.
The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), signed three years ago, has made Vietnamese aquatic products more competitive, and provided more opportunities for Vietnamese exporters to directly ship their products to Northern Europe for higher prices without using intermediaries.
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that Norway is one of the Northern European countries with a high demand for aquatic products. In the first five months of 2023, the country imported US$252.57 million worth of the products. Vietnam is Norway’s sixth largest provider of the product in the reviewed period.
However, the market share of Vietnam in the Norwegian market dropped from 6.4% recorded in the first five months of 2022 to 4.9% in the same period of 2023.
Norway and Vietnam are the respective second and third largest seafood exporter in the world, but the two countries’ fisheries sector are not in the competition as Norway can export cold-water fish such as salmon, cod, king crab and sea shrimp to Vietnam, while Vietnam can supply tra fish and farmed shrimp to the European country. Vietnamese products still make up a large proportion in Norway’s seafood imports.
Besides Norway, in the first five months of 2023, Vietnam also shipped about US$6.7 million worth of seafood to Sweden, and over US$17.2 million to Denmark.
Along with aquatic products, coffee is also a promising product for Vietnam in the North European market. According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden, people in Nordic countries consume the largest amount of coffee in the world.
Thanks to the EVFTA, the European Union (EU) is committed to protecting 39 geographical indications of Vietnam, including Buon Ma Thuot coffee. This is an advantage for Vietnamese coffee exported to the Nordic market.
At the same time, Vietnam has also exported fruit, cashew, and rubber to Nordic countries. In the first five months of 2023, Vietnam sold nearly US$986,000 worth of fruit and vegetables to Norway, up 4.2% year on year, along with nearly US$3.2 million worth of cashew, a rise of 6.2%.
The Vietnamese Trade Counselor in Sweden and Northern Europe, Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy said that the three Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway were among the top 10 countries with the highest per capita organic food consumption in the world in 2019. The world leader was Denmark with EUR344 per resident, Sweden ranked fifth at EUR215, and Norway ranked 10th at EUR83.
Thuy advised domestic firms to focus on supplying natural food colour products to this promising market, and reminded them to focus on ensuring transparency in production and supply methods, product origin, product environmental impact, and creating interesting stories of their products.
