Algeria is seen as a huge potential market for Vietnamese agricultural exports as almost all of its key farm products shipped to Algeria are not grown in the African country.

According to the Vietnamese Commercial Counsellor in Algeria , Nguyen Van Mui , Algeria is one of the African countries that has a large demand for food and foodstuffs because its agricultural production and food processing industry cannot meet domestic demands.

At present, 75 percent of food and foodstuffs consumed in Algeria are imported, mainly grain, wheat, milk, sugar, coffee, tea, dried vegetables and meat.

Algeria needs to import almost 400 million USD worth of agricultural products annually from Vietnam but the Southeast Asian country is only able to meet 22-25 percent of this figure, said Mui.

Vietnam ’s export turnover to Algeria reached over 83 million USD in 2008 and 94 million USD in 2009, of which agricultural products accounted for 80 percent.

Large amounts of rice and coffee are exported to Algeria, where Vietnam holds a 25 percent share of Algeria’s coffee market with an export turnover of nearly 49 million USD and 70 percent of the country’s rice with a record 23.8 million USD worth shipped last year.

In addition, Algeria imports many other commodities from Vietnam , including pepper worth 1.3 million USD, which accounts for 60 percent of Algeria ’s market share and copra at 1.6 million USD. Vietnam is now the second biggest exporter of copra to Algeria .

According to recent surveys, processed Vietnamese products such as roasted and instant coffee, parboiled rice, rice paper, dry noodles, spices and ground pepper also see an opportunity to enter this market.

In order to speed up the export of goods to Algeria, Mui has advised Vietnamese exporters to take part in trade fairs in Algeria to study the market and meet potential partners, including the Alger International Fair in June and the International Agricultural Exhibition in November each year./.