Exporting Vietnamese branded goods to markets in EVFTA

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Deputy Director of the Export Support Center, Trade Promotion Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), shared that the EU is a key export promotion market for Vietnam. If the products of Vietnamese enterprises have a brand in the EU market, they will not only help businesses develop sustainably in the EU market, but also have conditions and opportunities to spread the brand as well as the products. products in other markets around the world.

Therefore, in the past time, the Trade Promotion Agency has prioritized many key activities with the EU market to help businesses build, develop and protect their brands. For example, some of the activities that the Trade Promotion Agency has focused on doing very actively in recent years is organizing a series of export consulting sessions to the EU market to help businesses identify needs, market trends, updated regulations and policies of the EU market to be able to adjust products to suit the market's consumption needs. At the same time, there are strategies and plans to develop product brands suitable for the EU market.

Among the consultation sessions, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has coordinated with the Vietnamese Trade Office agencies abroad to implement. For example, in collaboration with the Vietnam Trade Office in France to organize a consultation session on the rice market in France. Through these consultation sessions, businesses also have a better understanding of the methods of market penetration as well as the requirements, standards and regulations of the market in order to develop the brand of goods in general and the brand. rice products in particular are more effective to the French market in particular and the EU market in general.

In addition to market consultation sessions, the Trade Promotion Agency also gives priority to activities to support awareness raising for businesses in building, developing and protecting brands in the market. EU through a series of programmes, conferences, seminars, trainings and trainings.

In addition, the Trade Promotion Department also works closely with the Vietnamese trading system in the EU to build and develop showrooms to display goods for businesses at the headquarters of Vietnamese trade deals. in the EU. This is also one of the very effective channels for businesses to send quality and market-appropriate sample products to the merchants to support, introduce and promote to partners in the EU.

In addition, the Trade Promotion Agency has carried out a series of online transactions with markets, including the EU market. This helps to accelerate the export of products and develop product brands for businesses. Through trade connection activities, businesses not only connect and find importers, but also help businesses introduce and promote strong brands at economical costs.

In addition to online trading activities, the Trade Promotion Department also closely cooperates with localities across the country to implement plans, programs and strategies to help propagate and promote geographical indications. management, collective mark for local, businesses in the EU market.

At the same time, many activities to promote product brands for businesses are also carried out by the Trade Promotion Agency through the application of social networking platforms or using communication channels in the EU market. to help spread the brand of the business and the national brand more widely in the EU market, which has great potential and potential.

From a business perspective, Mr. Le Anh Tuan, Deputy General Director, Hanoi Trade Corporation - JSC (Hapro) shared, Hapro has a market in over 80 countries and territories around the world and exports every year. over $100 million.

Hapro's market is wide, but in fact there are still main markets, strategic markets, key markets and niche markets. In particular, the EU is one of Hapro's strategic markets, accounting for over 30% of the market share.

Assessing the effectiveness of the EVFTA on business operations, Mr. Le Anh Tuan said, after the EVFTA comes into effect, Hapro's products for export will receive a great advantage of more tax incentives. That is the first problem.

The second problem is that the echo of the EVFTA makes customers more interested in Vietnamese products, especially those that have long competed in price and quality with some tropical countries like Thailand. Lan, Malaysia, Indonesia… Especially after Hapro entered the Top 10 major agricultural exporters with items such as rice, pepper, cashew nuts… Most recently, Hapro was recognized for the second time by the Ministry of Industry and Trade . Seven achieved National Brand, including rice products. For export achievements, customers have been paying more and more attention to Hapro's reputation. These are positive results after the EVFTA comes into effect.

Experience in building a brand from the French market

Vu Anh Son, in charge of the Vietnam Trade Office in France, also affirmed that the EVFTA has created a buzz that has made importers and international partners in this country more interested in the Vietnamese market.

Loc Troi is one of the successful branding enterprises in France

For the French market, it is expected that in 2022, Vietnam will first reach the export milestone of over 6 billion euros to France, of which the EVFTA is a very important factor.

Currently, Vietnam is the 24th supplier to France. If according to the current scenario, by the end of 2022, Vietnam will become the top 20 suppliers of goods to France. Although the market share is only 1%, but this market share is not too heavy, because there are only 10 suppliers with a market share of more than 1% and of which only Germany and China have two market shares. numbers, respectively 13% and 10%, the rest are only 5%, 7%, 2% and 1% like Vietnam, " - Mr. Vu Anh Son informed.

In terms of products, Vietnam has two main groups of export products to France with an export value of over 1 billion euros, which are footwear and telecommunications equipment, phones, then textiles. garment, machinery and equipment, electronic components, furniture, aquatic products and plastic products, plastic packaging.

Particularly for agricultural products in 2021, out of the top 500 export products of Vietnam to France, only 50 are agricultural products, reaching 276 million euros out of a total of more than 5.5 billion euros in agricultural products. equivalent to about 5%, which can be mentioned as cashew nuts, coffee, shrimp, fruits, fish fillets and rice.

Thus, it can be affirmed that Vietnamese goods are very diverse and located, but still focus a lot on a few key items. The items that seem to be our strengths such as agricultural products and food are still not many, so the potential for exploitation is still very large.

Regarding Vietnamese-branded goods, Loc Troi is currently one of the rice brands that has successfully approached the supermarket system in Europe and in France.

As for the rest, I have not seen any businesses that have actively and successfully introduced the hypermarket system as the final segment of the retail distribution system in Europe. “However, one thing must also be determined that building a Vietnamese brand and accessing the hypermarket system is not a story for all businesses, but only for a small number of businesses with high market value. fully capable, knowledgeable about the market and has a methodical development strategy” – Mr. Vu Anh Son said.