Vietnamese foods on way to conquer global market

General Director Nguyen Dang Hien of Tan Quang Minh Production and Trading Company said that using only the traditional recipe of processing lemons into Vietnamese salted lemon drink, the company's salted lemon beverage product Bidrico has been displayed in the US, Japanese and Chinese markets.

Surprisingly, after the company launched its products in foreign markets, it has been popular amongst customers abroad. From that success, the company has expanded to many other products such as bird's nest juice, aloe vera juice, and orange juice. The company's production capacity has so far reached 400 million liters of all kinds of fruit juices yearly.

Similarly, General Director Pham Thi Xuan Huong of OPC Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company said that through many years of research, the company found that Ngoc Linh ginseng is a precious medicinal herb because its active ingredients contain over 52 types of Saponin, including 26 types that are not found in other types of ginseng in the world.

In particular, Ngoc Linh ginseng contains MR2, which has the effect of preventing and inhibiting the growth of tumors and enhancing users’ health. Therefore, the company has successfully extracted the MR2 content in Ngoc Linh ginseng and mixed it with domestic bird's nest to launch the product Sanolin 20 Ngoc Linh ginseng and bird's nest.

Right after the launch of the products, the company received more export orders from partners in the US, European and many Asian countries. This product is just one of hundreds of the company's products that have successfully conquered the global market. Ms. Huong added that in 2023, the company received many businesses from the United States, Europe, and Japan that wished to cooperate and invest in the production of nutritional drinks from Vietnamese agricultural products and medicinal herbs to export back to the three above-mentioned markets.

Many businesses believe that Vietnam possesses diverse agricultural and food products. Therefore, businesses need to standardize the growing process according to international standards combining with investment in packaging and branding, they can expand their market shares.

Huynh Van Thon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Loc Troi Group, shared that as soon as the group's exported rice products with the brand ‘Vietnamese Rice’ was built, the company's products were introduced into two distribution systems, Carrefour and Leclerc, with nearly 800 hypermarkets and more than 3,000 supermarkets and convenience store chains throughout France. As a result, the company's revenue has increased significantly.

He revealed that by the end of 2023, Loc Troi Group reached a revenue of more than VND16,000 billion, growing more than 38 percent compared to 2022. This outstanding growth is thanks to the main contribution of the food industry with more than VND11,000 billion accounting for 70 percent of total revenue.

In the first quarter of 2024, an influx of foreign investors into Vietnam poured a total investment capital of US$6.17 billion, an increase of 13.4 percent over the same period last year.

Foreign enterprises decided to invest in 17 economic sectors and their capital poured most into the processing and manufacturing industry with a total investment capital of nearly $3.93 billion, accounting for nearly 63.6 percent of total registered investment capital. Even domestically, the market also witnessed the race to expand the production investment scale and market share of food processing corporations such as Korean CJ Group, Kido, Vissan, Acecook, and Bidrico.

President Nguyen Thi Kim Huyen of LNS International Corporation, emphasized about 7 million Vietnamese people living in foreign countries want to enjoy Vietnamese products.

However, in order for Vietnamese products to be traded globally, businesses need to invest in machinery and equipment as well as constantly research to improve product quality. The product must be good to retain customers. In addition, businesses must have full information on nutritional ingredients which must suit each market. In particular, the product must be exported through the official route to ensure stability and sustainability in the market.

In addition, it is necessary to see that the majority of Vietnam's agricultural, aquatic, seafood and processed food export groups enjoy a zero tax rate thanks to free trade agreements. Therefore, businesses should necessarily make the most of this advantage, and at the same time exploit more exclusive elements of traditional flavors to expand market share globally, Mr. Huynh Van Thon shared.

Paying attention to other elements, director Nguyen Dang Hien said that the transition to a green economy is creating more advantages for Vietnam in general and food processing enterprises. In addition to the improvement of production lines and technology to meet green technical barriers, organic farming will help farmers, cooperatives, and businesses increase revenue from selling carbon credits. This is also an important factor to help Vietnamese products improve their competitiveness in the market. In addition, businesses in this field also have the opportunity to exploit a new and potential market - the Halal market.

However, in addition to solutions such as capital support and preferential investment policies, trade promotion programs need to be practical and effective to promote the export of Vietnamese products in general in the coming time. Commercial counselors need to make more to lead Vietnamese firms into the global market, Mr. Nguyen Dang Hien emphasized.

Deputy Director Cao Thi Phi Van of Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center disclosed that room for agricultural and food exports is huge.

Statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center show that Vietnamese enterprises have exported products to 200 export markets inclduing 50 key markets with the global Halal market becoming a new, potential market for Vietnamese businesses as the Halal food market size was valued at $2.3 billion annually.

Vietnam is one of the largest agricultural and aquatic product exporting countries in the world with many products suitable to the needs of consumers in the Halal food market such as rice, rubber, tea, cashews, coffee, pepper, shrimp, and fish. Currently, it is estimated that Vietnam's import-export turnover to Muslim countries in the ASEAN region is nearly US$30 billion a year and the room for exports to these markets is quite huge.