German firms eye slice of F&B market

What is the purpose of your visit to Viet Nam?

Our visit to Viet Nam aims to support German companies seeking to work with Vietnamese partners in the food and hotel sector. We want to learn about the business activities of other competitors in the Vietnamese market. German companies show increasing interest in the Vietnamese market.

The food and beverage sector in Germany ranks fourth among industrial sectors, with a production value of 149.5 billion euros last year. The value from meat and sausage accounted for 22.7 per cent; milk products 15.4 per cent; and confectionary 9.4 per cent.

The two countries are expected to make joint efforts to advance long-term relationships.

What are the strategic plans to promote German food and beverage products in Viet Nam?

We are aware that our competitors are intensively involved in trying to increase market share in Asia, particular in Viet Nam. The Germany's Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection will carry out several comprehensive measures to support German food and beverage exports.

We will participate in Viet Nam's exhibitions, specifically the Food and Hotel Viet Nam 2013, to promote our products, and organise trade promotions as well as business trips toViet Nam to seek understanding of the market.

Also, we plan to have meetings with the Vietnamese Government to support policies that promote trade.

The Ministry will collaborate with the German Chamber of Commerce located in foreign countries to support companies in accessing the market. We will provide contact addresses for German companies to Vietnamese importers and introduce potential Vietnamese partners.

We also hope that Vietnamese businesses can learn more about German food and beverage products at the foreign exhibitions in which Germany participates. Next year, Germany plans to attend about 35 international specialised exhibitions.

Germany will increase exports to Viet Nam, focusing on products such as milk, meat, sausage, confectionary, bread and beverages. In addition, Germany will organise a German Food Week at METRO superstore and meet Vietnamese importers to seek cooperation.

Why are you interested in the Vietnamese market, particularly the food and beverage sector?

Viet Nam has successfully overcome the global economic crisis. It reported high and stable economic growth of 7 per cent in the last year. This year, the growth rate of the Vietnamese hospitality sector and services sector will range from 20 to 30 per cent. This opens up more opportunities for our sales channels, especially for German food.

In Viet Nam, consumers are familiar with German beer and sausage, thanks to high quality. However, we can see many good opportunities for our other products such as milk, meat, confectionery, bread and beverages through the Food and Hotel Viet Nam 2011 exhibition. Our products are highly valued and traded all over the world.

What are the challenges in seeking cooperation with Vietnamese partners?

One of the challenges is creating awareness among Vietnamese consumers of the benefits and advantages of our products. The biggest advantage of German products is high quality. Germany has always put food security at its top concern. It has set up a food control system in production processing that starts at the harvest stage and ends at the final product.

Germany is also known as a country with a high-tech agricultural sector. We have applied high technology to production to diversify and improve the quality of our products.

The other challenge is the distance between the two countries, making the product costs high, especially for milk products.

What is the value of Germany's agricultural product exports to Viet Nam?

Compared to other countries, German exports in agricultural products to Viet Nam are still modest. Germany continues to look to tap the tremendous potential in this country. Germany's food and beverage exports to the world reached about US$75 billion last year.

Exports to Viet Nam were $70 million. The export growth of milk products has seen an increase of 35 per cent to $2.2 million compared to 2009.

Confectionary and bread products have jumped by 92 per cent to $7.9 million. However, meat and other kinds of products decreased in export value. Imports of Vietnamese agricultural products were valued at 501 million euros ($701.4 million) last year. Of that figure, seafood products totalled 160 million euros ($224 million), and coffee, 250 million euros ($350 million). — VNS