Vietnam and Germany have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on veterinary quarantine certificate form for German frozen pork products imported in Vietnam in the future.

Signatories to the MoU were visiting Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan and his German counterpart Ursula Heinnen-Essener.

German Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Consumer Protection Ursula Heinnen-Essener described the signing of the MoU as an important step in implementing the protocol signed by the two countries in Hanoi in March 2009, thus opening an important market in Asia for German meat businesses and contributing to the development of the two countries’ relationship.

While in Berlin , Deputy Minister Tan held working sessions with the German Ministry for Agriculture and Consumer Protection in which both sides put forward measures to promote trade exchange and facilitate Vietnam ’s exports of agro-forestry and fisheries products to Germany and Germany ’s exports of frozen meat to Vietnam .

In addition to conducting a market survey in Germany, Tan also worked with the German Fisheries Association and a number of German importers of Vietnam’s seafood as well as food hygienic and quality management agencies to promote the exports of Vietnam’s products, especially tra and basa fish.

The deputy minister attended a seminar on promoting the Vietnam-Germany trade relations in agro-forestry and fisheries which was held on Oct. 10 in Koeln where the world’s largest food and beverage trade fair (ANUGA) is taking place.

Vietnam-Germany two-way trade reached 3.4 billion EUR in 2008 with agro-forestry and fisheries making up 27 percent of Vietnam ’s total export value to Germany . Germany is now the biggest coffee importer of Vietnam./.