Vietnam agriculture on a path to prosperity
(VOV) - Just about all of the Vietnam Trade Office programs are directly related to the goal of helping Vietnamese farmers become competitive in foreign agricultural markets – it’s one of the office’s core missions, says Nguyen Trung Dung.
Today, Dung, a trade counsellor to Japan, says the Trade Office supports agricultural goods in a vast number of ways.
The Trade Office organizes promotional activities for the supermarket, hotel and restaurant industries, conducts market research, holds seminars and offers trade servicing and market reporting on commodities and high value foodstuffs.
It also provides technical information on such things as the Japanese and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) import standards, development of new food products, and introduction of new food technologies.
Dung says it’s important for domestic businesses to stay in contact with and use the services of the trade offices to successfully gain and maintain entry into foreign markets.
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In particular the office helps domestic producers to become more proficient marketers themselves – through providing a constant supply of information, technical assistance, trade negotiation and other support.
Recently, the Trade Office has achieved great success for domestic producers by helping negotiate import licensing agreements for getting fresh lychees access to both the US and Australia markets.
Now it looks like there are openings in the Japanese and Republic of Korea (RoK) markets for fresh mangoes. At least there is agreement in principle that Japanese regulators will allow the import of mangoes.
However, ‘the devil is in the details’, says Dung and numerous specific details remain to be hammered out including checking technical parameters in terms of origin, the quality of product and chemical residues.
In addition, a contingent of Japanese regulators will travel in the near future to Vietnam for head-to-head discussions on specific pertinent issues with political and industry leaders before making the final decision, Dung said.
With the rapid expansion of markets brought about by integration it is an interesting new world not easily understood by many Vietnamese – but through the work of its visionary marketing and trade professionals, the Vietnam Trade Office is ready to lead agriculture to prosperity.