At a FamilyMart shop (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has been consideredas a “fertile land” for foreign food firms as many trademarks from the Republicof Korea (RoK), Japan and Thailand are seeking ways to penetrate the 93million-strong market.
Statistics from the Vietnam Retailers’ Association (VRA)showed that the country’s food consumption in the 2011-2016 period reachedabout 30 billion USD with two-digit growth predicted in the future.
Han Kyung Joon, Vice Director of the Korea Trade and InvestmentPromotion Agency (KOTRA), said that after with the Korea-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement(KVFTA) became effective in 2015, Korean enterprises have switched their focusfrom the Chinese market to Vietnam in an effort to boost the export of consumergoods.
Along with merging and acquisition deals with highvalue, a strong wave of Korean investments has been seen in Vietnam’s food andbeverage market.
On October 31, a delegation of businesses operating inthe food and beverage industry from the RoK’s Jeju visited Ho Chi Minh City toseek Vietnamese distributors. The Ho Chi Minh City Branch of the VietnamChamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said that the visit was a success.
At the beginning of the second quarter, RoK’sK-FOORAND ZONE opened its shop in Lotte Mart in Ho Chi Minh City, marking anexpansion of Korean food coverage in Vietnam.
On November 8, the second Food and Beverage Exhibition2017 will be held in Hanoi after the first one in August in Ho Chi Minh Citywhere the RoK took the lead in the number of participating enterprises.
Japanese food brands are also deploying plans to bringtheir products into the Vietnamese market. Takimoto Koji, head of the JapanExternal Trade Organisation (JETRO) in Ho Chi Minh City, said Vietnam is thefirst country chosen by Japan in its campaign to export more food to the world.
Since late 2016, JETRO has cooperated with somedistributors of Ministop, FamilyMart and Aeon in Vietnam to sell Japanese food.JETRO plans to increase food exports by 30 percent next year from the currentamount of 10 million USD.
A report released by StoxPlus in 2016 showed that in2015-2016, the majority of merging and acquisition deals in the processed foodmarket of Vietnam came from Asian investors, including those from Japan,Thailand and the RoK.-VNA
VNA
