US Deputy Chief of Mission McClelland makes a speech at the expo. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The US Mission believed in building a fruitfulpartnership with Vietnam that offered new and sustainable opportunities forboth US and Vietnamese food companies.
The statement was made by the USDeputy Chief of Mission McClelland at a US food and beverage show held in Hanoion November 29.
The event drew the participation of15 US enterprises to advertise food and beverage products as well as seekVietnamese importers.
According to McClelland, the USagricultural relationship with Vietnam had grown significantly over the past 10years, from 1 billion USD in exports in 2008 to 3 billion USD in 2017.
“Much of the credit for this growthgoes to food businesses and myriad stakeholders that aim to bring safe US foodand beverage products to consumers in Vietnam,” McClelland added.
Talking about the difficulties USfood products faced entering the Vietnamese market, Francis Lee, director ofUnited Base Company Limited, said previously, importers in Vietnam alwayscompared prices and the US food was often more expensive than others. However,in the past few years, people had concentrated more on the quality and safetyof products rather than price alone.
“Vietnam’s economy has started togrow, and there are a number of Vietnamese people now willing to pay higher pricesfor better quality and for expensive products. For example, US cherry exportsto Vietnam have increased spectacularly from 1,000 boxes in the summer of 2011to 200,000 boxes in 2018,” Lee told the English-language daily Viet Nam News of the Vietnam News Agency.-VNS/VNA
