France is the third biggest economy in Europeand sixth in the world with a population of 66 million, according to Hoang VanDu, Deputy Director of the Agricultural Trade Promotion Centre under theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Rungis is one of the biggest farm producemarkets in the globe, which provides agricultural products for the Frenchcapital and proximity areas with 18 million people, he said.
Paris and France in general are home to a largenumber of Asian people who have high demand for made-in-Asia farm produce, headded.
Each day, up to 6,000 tonnes of farm produce aretransported to the market, one tenth of which are transported to the nearbyairport for outbound shipment, Du unveiled.
The Vietnam Agricultural Product Week will featurea wide range of activities to introduce and promote Vietnamese agricultural productsto French distributors and wholesalers, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets aswell as increase business-to-business connectivity, he said.
The Agricultural Trade Promotion Centre hascoordinated with Vietnam’s Trade Office in France to explore the Europeanmarket.
“We have set up an information technology andmarket research office to study regulations on imports and customer habits”, hesaid.
“France in particular and Europe in general arechoosy markets. They have strict requirements on the quality of products”, Duadded.
Therefore, Vietnamese businesses must workharder to meet European regulations on ensuring food safety and hygiene andtrace of the product origins, he suggested.
It is important to createenvironmentally-friendly products, he recommended.
Additionally, businesses need to preparesufficient materials with good quality to meet the big number of orders fromforeign markets.
Du also advised enterprises not to buy and useillegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) aquatic products.
Instead, they should focus on developing brandnames and improving quality and design of products, he said.-VNA