The Vietnamese commercial counsellor in Mexico had a number of meetings with local officials and entrepreneurs over the past few days to seek ways to help Vietnamese agricultural products make further inroads into the Latin American market.

During a dialogue on the agricultural and aquacultural trade in Mexico’s northern city of Nuevo Laredo on November 14, Commercial Counsellor Hoang Tuan Viet said Vietnam’s key exports to Mexico included rice, pepper, coffee and basa fish, adding that the Southeast Asian country is the fourth largest rice exporter to Mexico in 2013, after the US, India, and Uruguay.

He also briefed local officials and entrepreneurs on the Vietnamese market and import and export businesses.

Meeting with Arturo Calderon Ruanova, General Director of Inspection at Mexico’s National Service for Plant, Animal, and Food Safety on the sidelines of the dialogue, the counsellor suggested the two countries negotiate a bilateral agreement on animal and plant quarantine, and accept customs clearance procedures by electronic quarantine certification so as to enhance Vietnam’s agricultural products on the Mexican market.

Earlier, Viet attended a working session with representatives of the Mexican Ministry of Economy in Laredo city and surveyed a number of trade centres.

He also met with the local businesses Grupo Serval, Alcex International, and Inportaciones RAM-DAM, which said they are keen to to import agricultural machinery and spare parts, trucks, motorcycles, agricultural products, and textile and garments from Vietnam.

Mexico is Vietnam’s second biggest Latin American importer, after Brazil. Two-way trade topped 1.5 billion USD in recent years.-VNA