Mr. Le Hoang Tai, Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that Algeria is one of the leading important partners of Vietnam in Africa.

Currently, the two countries are promoting relations in many fields; including the economic, trade and investment sectors.

Therefore, in order to strengthen the market for businesses, within the framework of the National Program on Trade Promotion in 2022, the Trade Promotion Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) and the Vietnam Trade Office in Algeria will coordinate to organize the event. Export consultation session to the Algerian market on April 19, 2022.

The event will be held directly in Ho Chi Minh City, combined online on the Zoom platform and disseminated the Facebook fanpage of the Department of Trade Promotion.

According to Mr. Le Hoang Tai, at the consultation session, the program's experts and rapporteurs will guide businesses to approach and apply the regulations, standards, and import-export conditions of the Algerian market for a particular country. number of products processed from agricultural products and food.

This is to help businesses and manufacturers apply and comply, contributing to supporting Vietnamese enterprises to restore production and boost exports.

Algeria is a country with the largest area in Africa and is located in North Africa and is the 4th largest economy in Africa with a gross domestic product in 2020 of 145.2 billion USD, foreign exchange reserves reaching about approx. more than 44 billion USD, equivalent to 15 months of imports. Algeria's population is relatively large, more than 44 million people, GDP per capita in 2020 is 3,310 USD with quite large purchasing power.

Mr. Hoang Duc Nhuan, Vietnam Trade Counselor in Algeria, said: In recent years, Algeria has advocated diversifying its economy, boosting exports, and limiting imports, but this is still a potential market for Vietnamese goods.

Notably, the Algerian market has a need to import Vietnam's strong products such as coffee, pepper, cashew nuts, freshwater seafood... products that this country cannot produce.

Despite being a potential market and an important gateway for Vietnamese businesses to increase investment and trade cooperation with African countries, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Algeria is still modest.

According to statistics of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, trade between the two countries reached 300 million USD in 2017; of which Vietnam's exports reached about 281 million USD.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Algeria's import restriction policy, in 2021, our country's export turnover to this market will only reach 153 million USD, with the main products being green coffee reaching 56,545 tons, turnover of 99.68 million USD. There are also rice, cashew nuts, confectionery, cereal products, pepper, cinnamon, pangasius filet, wooden furniture...

Particularly in the first quarter of 2022, Vietnam's export turnover to Algeria reached 30.6 million USD, down 0.5% compared to the same period in 2021.

In particular, in the structure of Vietnam's exports to Algeria, coffee accounts for 65% of the total export value. Algeria is a market with a lot of room for Vietnamese coffee and in the near future is also the number 1 export item to this market.

Next is rice, every year Algeria imports 100,000 tons of rice, mainly 5% broken rice, parboiled rice, serving Asians living and working in Algeria. Rice is a subsidized commodity, so the import tax is quite low compared to the common ground, only 16%.

In addition, spices such as pepper and cinnamon are also in high demand in Algeria along with cashew nuts. Seafood is also in the top 5 export items with the largest turnover of Vietnam to this market.

However, according to Mr. Hoang Duc Nhuan, when exporting goods to the Algerian market, businesses need to learn carefully about the market as well as the policies on tariffs, labor laws, payment methods, etc. Disputes, debt recovery...

According to trade experts, the export consulting session to the Algerian market is the 7th session in a series of 30 export consulting sessions to foreign markets co-ordinated by the Trade Promotion Department with the Vietnamese Trade Offices in the country. outside the organization in 2022.

Therefore, this will be a forum for Vietnamese businesses to consult and discuss specific issues of their businesses with experts and reporters of the program to find out how to optimize the marketing effectiveness. approaching and developing the Algerian market of enterprises.