FTAs encourage food imports, investments in Vietnam

Free trade agreements (FTAs) have created opportunities for food imports and foreign investment in the domestic food industry, according to experts.
FTAs encourage food imports, investments in Vietnam ảnh 1FTAs have brought more opportunities for imported foods to enter Vietnam's market (Photo: doanhnghiepthuonghieu.vn)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Freetrade agreements (FTAs) have created opportunities for food importsand foreign investment in the domestic food industry, according to experts.

Countries with developed food processing industries such asJapan, the US and Australia and the EU have already promoted exportsof their food products to Vietnam.

Last week in Ho Chi Minh City, 18 Canadian food companies metwith potential partners. 

Keith Colwell, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Fisheriesand Aquaculture, expressed his hope that the trip couldprovide opportunities for Canadian food companies to export their productsto Vietnam thanks to tariff reductions under the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The minister told Thoi bao Kinhdoanh (Business Times) newspaper that Canadian food businesses hadshifted their focus to Vietnam after developments in the Chinese market.

These companies want to bring high-end Canadian products likeseafood, agricultural products and beverages to new markets like Vietnam,Colwell said. Tariff reductions under the CPTPP had helped Canadianproducts become more competitive in Vietnam’s market.

Last year, Canada's agricultural and seafood exports to Vietnamreached a turnover of 312.7 million CAD (about235 million USD).
In the first nine months of this year, Vietnamimported more than 14,824 tonnes of pork with a total value of 29.2 million USD,much higher than the imports of 14,295 tonnes in volume and 23.6 million USD invalue last year.

According to Le Hong Minh,director of Vietrade’s Investment Promotion Centre for Industry and Trade,total FDI poured into Vietnam’s food processing sector was estimated at11.2 billion USD with 717 projects, excluding foreign investors buyingshares or conducting merger and acquisitions.

Foreign capital flows in the food industry were mainlyfrom Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, the Republic of Koreaand China. These factories produced food for the domestic market and export.

Most of FDI projects in the food processing sectorwere concentrated in big cities and provinces like Hanoi, HCM City, Binh Duong, Dong Naiand Long An.

However, these FDI projects had little or no investmentin developing raw materials, Minh said. Therefore, the industries supportingthe food processing industry like cultivation and husbandry had not beendeveloped according to modern standards.

He said domestic raw materials did not meet the productionrequirements of FDI enterprises in the food processing sector. For example, thedomestic dairy industry could only meet the 25 percent of the domestic marketdemand, while the nation had to import 90 percent of its cookingoil. 

According to experts, the State should encourageforeign invested projects in the food industry to transfer technologyfrom developed countries in the fields of processing, packaging andpreserving agricultural and aquatic products./.
VNA

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