Hanoi (VNA) – The Spring Fair 2026, held for the first time in the capital city of Hanoi, has attracted a wide range of enterprises, cooperatives, craft villages and production and business units from multiple sectors.
The diversity of products on display, combined with increasingly professional presentation and promotional methods, has helped bring many local brands closer to both domestic and international consumers. On this occasion, the Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Cairo interviewed Nguyen Duy Hung, head of the Vietnam Trade Office in Egypt, about experience gained from trade promotion activities, product strengths, and opportunities as well as challenges in business cooperation between the two countries.
Regarding Egyptian products that could be introduced to Vietnamese consumers through the Spring Fair and similar events in the future, Hung noted that Egypt has strengths in agricultural products, crop varieties and processed fruits. However, the country’s manufacturing sector is still undergoing restructuring, and despite notable progress in recent years, relatively few Egyptian products are widely exported globally.
Products with strong potential for promotion at fairs in Vietnam include fruits such as oranges, mandarins, mangoes, grapes and pomegranates, as well as agricultural produce including potatoes, onions and strawberries. At present, Vietnam has opened its market to Egyptian oranges, mandarins and grapes, while other products may require additional time before entering the Vietnamese market.
Other goods with potential in Vietnam include fertilisers, electrical cables, household appliances, textiles, ready-made garments and certain plastic products. Egypt is also rich in natural resources, including natural gas, petroleum, phosphate ore, iron ore and minerals such as gold, black sand and coal, which could help meet Vietnam’s demand for imported raw materials.
According to Hung, a growing number of Egyptian companies are developing advanced technology products such as smart home automation systems, electric vehicle chargers and specialised IoT sensors used in industry, agriculture and health care, creating promising opportunities for cooperation with Vietnam. Other potential areas of technological collaboration include artificial intelligence, embedded software, data analytics and fibre-optic networks.
Vietnamese products that are popular in Egypt are mainly raw materials or goods subject to relatively low import duties, including cashew nuts, pepper, desiccated coconut, green coffee beans, cinnamon, star anise and frozen fish fillets.
High import tariffs on finished Vietnamese products entering Egypt, in the absence of a bilateral free trade agreement, remain a major challenge for Vietnamese exporters. Additional obstacles include language barriers, cultural and religious differences, and geographical distance, which can make it difficult for Vietnamese businesses to promote products effectively in the Egyptian market.
The diplomat said 2026 is the first year the two countries implement agreements regarding the upgrading of their relations to a Comprehensive Partnership following the state visit to Egypt by State President Luong Cuong. The agreements aim to boost trade and investment, significantly increase bilateral trade turnover and facilitate market access for goods from both sides.
The Vietnam Trade Office in Egypt has already outlined trade promotion activities for the year, focusing on cooperation with the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC) and several provincial chambers of commerce in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria and the Red Sea region to organise quarterly trade promotion events connecting businesses and investment opportunities.
Efforts will also be made to invite Egyptian business delegations to participate in trade fairs and international exhibitions in Vietnam. At the same time, support will be provided for Vietnamese enterprises to attend international exhibitions in Egypt./.
VNA
