Vietnamese groups grasp German export prospects

Vietnamese groups grasp German export prospects, Illustration photo

Vu Hoang Son, managing director of Organics More Co., Ltd, said that Germany is a large consumption market for Vietnam’s agricultural products in Europe. The company has exported organic pepper and cashews to Germany since 2016.

Over the past year, the company has witnessed the increasing export volume of its pepper and cashews to Germany. This growth is attributable to either the enforcement of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the rising demand of German consumers.

“To promote our products we visit Biofach, the world’s leading trade fair for organic food held in Germany every year. At the expo, we can meet directly with German buyers. However, we realise there is limited connection between German and Vietnamese businesses in agriculture. We hope that there will be more trading activities to help German and Vietnamese businesses unlock the full potential of Vietnamese organic food,” Son said.

Indeed, Vietnam’s organic agriproducts hold tremendous potential to export to Europe, especially Germany. However, this also comes with high requirements for quality. Therefore, Organics More has improved the factory process to meet the demand of the European market.

Organics More has two processing factories in the southern provinces of Binh Phuoc and Ba Ria-Vung Tau with the export volume of 20-30 containers per year.

Since the EVFTA came into force in August 2020, Trung An Hi-Tech Farming JSC has also exported its first batch of fragrant rice in line with the deal’s commitments to Germany. Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An Hi-Tech Farming, shared that the EVFTA paves a way for Vietnamese rice to make stronger presence in Europe.

Each month, the company has exported 25 containers of rice to Germany, which will be sold to other countries. If there is no container shortage, the company can increase its export there.

“We aim to increase the competitiveness of Vietnamese rice in European countries. Besides branded packages, we are also in negotiations with German supermarkets to list our products on their shelves. We will design smaller packages containing 1-2kg of rice to sell to German consumers,” Binh said.

In June, Trung An set up its first representative office in Germany to promote Vietnamese rice in Europe.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Germany, Vietnam’s agricultural products still account for a small proportion of the structure of its exports to that country. In 2020, Vietnam exported $303 million of fresh fruit as well as processed fruit and nuts, accounting for 2.7 per cent of Germany’s import demand (about $11.2 billion).

Vietnam also exported $429 million of tea, coffee, and spice products, accounting for 10 per cent of Germany’s import demand (about $4.1 billion).

Vietnamese trade counsellor to Germany Bui Vuong Anh said, “The figures show that the potential of the German market is still very large. We can make good use of the opportunities and mechanism under the EVFTA and the Vietnam-Germany Joint Committee for Economic Cooperation to facilitate the deeper penetration of Vietnam’s agricultural products into Germany and meet the increasing requirements of this relatively fastidious market.”