English
European food firms explore business opportunities in Vietnam
Topics to be discussed at the information seminar will be the growth potential of Vietnam’s food and beverage industry, financial benefits that will derive from the soon-to-be-implemented EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and imports of European products to Vietnam.
The delegation will also take part in more than 230 B2B meetings with Vietnamese distributors and importers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City besides having fact-finding trips to Vietnam’s large commercial complexes of Giant, An Nam, MM Mega Market and Lotte Mart.
With a value equal to roughly 15% GDP spending for food yearly, Vietnam has been considered as a “fertile land” for foreign food firms as many foreign trademarks are seeking ways to penetrate the 96 million-strong market.
According to the Vietnam Report Company (VNR), the country’s food consumption in the 2011-2016 period reached about US$30 billion with two-digit growth predicted in the future.
VNR’s survey revealed three trends in the food and beverage industry in 2017-2018, such as development of new services and sale methods, both growth potential and competition and a trend to invest in clean food.
Specialists emphasized that businesses in the sector should be active and have suitable strategies with changes in the market, while maintaining their brand names.
Statistics from the Vietnam Retailers’ Association (VRA) also showed that the food and beverage market is expected to see potential for further development in 2017-2018.
Meanwhile, the Business Monitor International (BMI) forecast that the growth rate of the sector would be at 10.9 per cent in the 2017-2019 period, thanks to people’s increasing income and a trend of using high value products.
Han Kyung Joon, Vice Director of the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), said that after with the Korea-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (KVFTA) became effective in 2015, Korean enterprises have switched their focus from the Chinese market to Vietnam in an effort to boost the export of consumer goods. Along with merging and acquisition deals with high value, a strong wave of Korean investments has been seen in Vietnam’s food and beverage market.
Japanese food brands are also deploying plans to bring their products into the Vietnamese market. Takimoto Koji, head of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Ho Chi Minh City, said Vietnam is the first country chosen by Japan in its campaign to export more food to the world.
Since late 2016, JETRO has cooperated with some distributors of Ministop, FamilyMart and Aeon in Vietnam to sell Japanese food. JETRO plans to increase food exports by 30% this year from last year’s amount of US$10 million.
A report released by StoxPlus in 2016 showed that in 2015-2016, the majority of merging and acquisition deals in the processed food market of Vietnam came from Asian investors, including those from Japan, Thailand and Korea.