Exploring Opportunities For Export Of Agricultural And Fishery Products To American

The export market with big potential for agricultural and fishery products of the Vietnam

For such a long time, America, the largest economy in the world, is always the large, diverse and attractive market for all exporting countries, including Vietnam. With its vast consumer market with 322 million people and 18 trillion USD (GDP), the demand for import of agricultural products in this market is huge. The United States is the country importing the most agricultural products in the world, the US annually imports around 10 billion USD of vegetables, fruit; about 3.5 billion USD of coffee; more than 9 billion USD of rubber; more than 2.5 billion USD of types of meat; about 1.5 billion USD of products processed from cereals.

The trade relation between the US and Vietnam last time has developed rapidly both in size and value. Until this point of time, the US is the second big trading partner and is the largest export market of Vietnam. In 2015, Vietnam exported to the US market with a value of 30.6 billion USD/ year, of which export value of Vietnam's agricultural products reached 2.9 billion USD. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs for the first 6 months of 2016, total exports turn-over of agricultural products to the US market reached 1.54 billion USD, increasing by 12.9% over the same period last year. With this growth speed, Vietnam is expected to export agricultural products to reach about 3.3 billion USD, increasing by 13.8% compared to 2015.

(Source:US Population Investigation)

Textile products are still at the top with the biggest turnover valued nearly 6.3 billion USD, accounting for 33.4% of the total export value to this market. Besides textiles, 4 other items exported into the United States valued from 1 billion USD or more include: footwear nearly 2.36 billion USD, kinds of telephone and components nearly 1.53 billion USD, computers, electronic products and components more than 1.5 billion USD, wood and wood products nearly 1.45 billion USD. Basa fish products are considered the commodity with large export turnover of Vietnam in the US market. Octopus and squid products exported to the US achieved a value of 2,566 million USD in the first 7 months of 2015, increasing by 12.6% compared to the same period in 2014. The export to this country is accounting for 1.2% of the total export value of squid and octopus of Vietnam.

Agricultural and fisheries market of Vietnam is very diverse and rich

It is interesting that the opportunities for export of the key and "traditional" products of Vietnam, such as textiles, footwear, wood and wood products, seafood products, handbags, suitcases, hats and the agricultural and fishery products "emerging" of niche markets are also increasing such as organic agricultural products (organic), vegetable oils and oilseeds, tea, spices, plant material, animal, plywood, even drugs, particularly from natural plant sources. Specifically, the Vietnam organic products certified by the USDA (United States) or EU include cassava, coconut oil, fruit drinks, rice, dried fruits and vegetables even shrimp and fish are gradually penetrating more "easily" when meeting the quality standards that are the most annoying of this discerning market.

According to Mr. Nguyen Lam Vien, Chairman of Vinamit, at present, the market has a huge demand for fruits and vegetables of high quality, focusing on issues of user’s health care. That is why in many popular supermarkets in the US, about 10-15% of the products meeting USDA organic standards do not only target the high consumer segment, but also more widely access to the middle-class consumer segment who pay much attention to health care. Mr. Vien also said that once accepted to receive products by the big markets like the US, Japan, Europe, it is able to say that our products shall not be manufactured enough for sales. In addition, they accept to pay more for the products that are reputable, have brand and high quality.

Many opportunities as well as challenges

America is the world's largest market, but together with the attraction, the export competition level of in this market will become increasingly more difficult and extreme. Indeed, in the Mekong Connect Forum - Ceo Forum 2016 (2^nd time) dated October 26^th, 2016 in Can Tho City. (ww.mekongconnect.vn), Mr. Herb Cochran, Executive Director of American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham Vietnam) mentioned the reasons why recently, the United States has strengthened the quality standards & imported food control. Accordingly, the Law on Food Safety Modernization of the Food and Drug Administration FDA (FSMA) creates multi-layered system of regulations including manufacturers, importers, third party, foreign country management agencies and FDA. FSMA is the food control measure since it has not entered into the US – landed on the US and freely sold on the US market. This leads to the enhancement of the ability of the food safety system of exporting countries, including the systems of closer regulations on supply chain of commodity from the exporting countries. Naturally, with such higher and higher technical barriers on the import quality standards, it will be more "difficult" for the Vietnamese enterprises who wish to export products to the United States while their export capacity is still limited to finance, human, market information, penetration strategies to the US market. For agricultural products, the manufacturers need to invest in quality, eliminate chemical residue, use clean soil, good varieties to reduce interference of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides and growth stimulants according to methods and organic farming or natural cultivation. According to experts, exporting to the US still faces many difficulties due to the enterprises themselves because the export capacity of the Vietnamese enterprises is relatively weak, exporting competitiveness with other countries in the US market is quite struggling with high freight and long transit times, the trading legal system, technical barriers and high food safety…

Agricultural and fisheries export in the United States has many opportunities and challenges

Mr. Bryan Phan - Director of Human Resources Consulting Service Supply 40hrs Company (USA) said the US market still had great potential for Vietnamese enterprises to exploit. But a sad reality that many Vietnamese enterprises still lacked information and did not have a full understanding of this market, which led to the unfortunate loss occurring when exporting to the US and not yet confirmed Vietnamese goods position in this market. Mr. Bryan stressed it was important that enterprises should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages when exporting goods to the US in order to offer reasonable solutions to take advantage of the opportunities, overcome difficulties to achieve ultimate aim of conquering and staying on this vast and potential market. In addition, when detecting defective products and having any questions or complaints, most US companies did not want to call Vietnamese exporters at 12 midnight in Vietnam (corresponding to the US working hours). What they wanted was that the Vietnamese enterprises would have a representative office in the US to solve all troubles incurred during the transaction. Accordingly, Mr. Bryan Phan recommended Vietnamese enterprises to choose the consulting or service firms to represent them in the US.

The US law is quite strict and if the exporters do not learn or hire the private law firms, they are very easy to violate law. If the enterprises want to bring this product to the market, they are forced to comply with the 2 steps: directly or through the importer to submit the food processing control programs to FDA to review and issue license. Next, the enterprises need to be recognized at the national level through the MoU signed between FDA and the competent state agency controlling food safety/hygiene in the exporting country. Only when there is a full range of certified papers mentioned above, can the enterprises put products into this market.

In recent years, many Vietnamese enterprises such as Kem Nghia, Hapro, Trung Nguyen Coffee, Vinacafe, Vinamit, Tai Vuong rice, Loc Troi rice, Mekong coconut water, Luong Quoi (coconut oil), G.O.C Food still continue actively participating in the exhibition programs, the food Fair week in the United States to search export opportunities, market penetration by opening representative offices in the US, looking for distributors/resellers to develop the distribution and sales system in the US.

Penetrating & exploiting market potential through advisory services & business connections

Besides trade promotion network of the state system, at present, role of the private trade promotion unit is growing and contributing significantly to the business performance for the exporting enterprise community. If Vietnamese enterprises have no available parts and specialized resources for export, the enterprises can seek external support from specialized units. As a leading expert on American investment promotion with more than 7 years of experiences, USIS Group has expanded its operations into the field of enterprise investment L1, real estate business, trade promotion through its subsidiaries - USS Consulting (www.usis-consulting.us) to complete the vision & mission of an organization that connects, companies & supports international integration for individuals & enterprises in the country and is the bridge to promote the Vietnam – US relation in the field of education - trade & investment. USIS Consulting is positioned as a reliable Resource “connecting one-stop business development” through activities of trade promotion and investment between the United States & Vietnam for individuals & enterprises.

USIS Consulting office collective in Southern California, USA

With a team of leading and experienced consultants in international business, a group of class global and reputable international business partners, a system 5 of service offices spreading across the major cities of Vietnam and in America, USIS Consulting offers services consistent with needs and practical experiences of each enterprise according to different stages: from providing information & basic guidelines for initial preparing step; to selecting and capturing information for investment or market entry; or when the enterprises need active support for business development or investment in the US market.

At first, Vietnamese enterprises wishing provides the shared office services (business center), commercial representative, corporate investment L1 or trade promotion in the US market can contact us so enjoy special privileges during the opening time in the US.

The opening event of new office of USIS Group in Can Tho

"USIS Group NEW VISION - NEW MISSION"

At USIS Group Office, 269 30/4 Street, Xuan Khanh, Ninh Kieu, Can Tho

At 09:30 - 13:00, Saturday, December 10^th, 2016

With the program discussing on specialized subjects in combination with individual consulting in order to serve individuals and enterprises in the Western provinces:

-      "Developing Business Potential in the US" by USIS Consulting (www.usis-consulting.us), specialized in consulting export and investment promotion: introducing opportunities to open shared office at the "Business Center" of USIS Group in the United States with preferential price; consulting corporate investment Visa L1 for business development; how to penetrate the US market and opportunities to invest in real estate in the US...

-      "Fulfill Your American Dream" of USIS Education (www.usis-edu.us): introducing the oriented study overseas service "USIS Excellency, for students who want to pursue their dreams on studying in the leading universities in the US such as Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, MIT ...

We, USIS, are willing to listen to and consult the suitable services for the individual needs of each customer from consulting initial orientation, providing detailed information to actively supporting for you to enable to be residential, study, do business and invest successfully in the US.

As the number of seats is limited to 50 seats, please register early according to the link below:

https://bit.ly/2gKovPI

We will contact you after receiving the registration to confirm your participation in the conference.

All requests or questions please contact:

Can Tho Office: 269, 269 30/4 Street, Xuan Khanh Ward, Ninh Kieu District
Tel: (84) 710 389 8668 
HCMC Office: CJ Building, 7^th Floor, Room 701, 6 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1
Tel: (84) 8 3822 0366
Hanoi Office: Melia Hotel, 8^th Floor, Room 804, 44B Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Hoan Kiem District
Tel: (84) 4 3824 6959 
Da Nang Office: 89 Thai Phien Street, Hai Chau District
Tel: (84) 511 3664 679
U.S Office.: 1122 Bristol, 2^nd Floor., Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Tel: (1) 855-837-4680

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