Pickled Welsh onion, square sticky rice cake, traditional jams, sugar-coated fruit and many other Vietnamese favourites in the lunar New Year festival (Tet) have so far been shipped to Japan, Europe and the US in service of Overseas Vietnamese.

The south-based Tran Gia Company, for example, has exported 30 tonnes of square and cylindrical sticky rice cakes and phrynium leaves (used in wrapping the cakes) to France and the US, homes to large Vietnamese communities, as Tet is approaching.

The Ngoc Lien food company in Ho Chi Minh City has shipped three containers of Tet specialties, including pickled Welsh onion and rice paper to make spring roll wrappings, to the US. The company owner, Pham Thi Ngoc Lien, said demand for these products on the threshold of Tet was huge.

Exporters said specialty exports have risen between 25 and 30 percent in the two months before Tet over previous months, while prices increased by 10 percent year on year.

They said regular shipments of such Vietnamese Tet specialties are now sent abroad year round and have become popular in supermarkets in foreign markets, instead of just during Tet or in Vietnamese markets.

In an effort to promote these products abroad, domestic enterprises have not only taken part in international food trade fairs but also built their own websites featuring traditional Vietnamese specialties./.