Agricultures, Foods, News & Event
Looking for opportunities to bring Vietnamese agricultural products to Singapore market
The Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore strives to find opportunities to explore the potential of cooperation in agricultural products between Vietnam and Singapore.
Following the direction of the Prime Minister on measures to promote the export of Vietnamese agricultural products, seafood and foodstuffs to the Singapore market, over the past time, the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore has been active and has many promotion activities, focusing on supporting the export of Vietnam’s strong products including fresh and processed agricultural products.
Accordingly, from the beginning of 2023 until now, the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore has stepped up support for localities to promote trade and promote agricultural products to Singapore and achieve many encouraging results. Some agricultural and aquatic products exported to the Singapore market are mainly: pepper (Singapore is one of the five main export markets of Vietnam); seafood (ranked 3rd); rice (3rd place); vegetables (6th place); coffee, cashew nuts and rubber all account for a significant proportion.
Mr. Cao Xuan Thang – Commercial Counselor, Head of Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore – said: One of the measures to support is to update local mechanisms, policies and regulations for domestic businesses. “For example, Singapore’s new regulation on labeling sugary drinks for domestic businesses to promptly grasp and deploy,” Thang said.
It is known that the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore and FairPrice have promoted bringing high-quality Vietnamese goods to Singapore consumers, thereby contributing to promoting strong and effective trade cooperation between the two countries. FairPrice is the largest supermarket chain in Singapore. At the FairPrice supermarket system, there are more than 800 Vietnamese products.
Besides, in addition to coordinating with FairPrice, the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore always tries to build close relationships with other supermarket chains in Singapore to seek opportunities to explore the potential of cooperation in agricultural products between the two countries. It is estimated that more than 600 product items from Vietnam have been on the shelves of the FairPrice supermarket chain in the period from 2018 to now, and the total number may reach “more than 1,000”.
In addition, “we have also implemented promotion measures to increase the presence of Vietnamese goods in the area. The deal led FairPrice NTUC’s delegation to attend Food Expo in Vietnam in November 2022 in Vietnam. Thereby, many Vietnamese brands are in the final stages of price negotiations to bring goods into the FairPrice supermarket system,” said Vietnam Trade Representative in Singapore.
In fact, Singaporean consumers always consider food and consumables carefully in terms of both appearance and quality. The Singapore market has a highly competitive and wasteful nature. Moreover, the promotion of bringing products to the Singapore market requires a lot of effort as well as high costs. The “problem” is to maintain good product quality after the local authorities agree to import and accept it from the market.
Accordingly, in order to convince and retain customers in the Singapore market, localities and businesses need to strengthen the management of the production process from planting, fertilizing to harvesting agricultural and food products to ensure the products meet quality requirements for export.
Mr. Irving Lim Wei Lun – representative of Fair Price – highly appreciated the quality and prices of Vietnamese goods and said: FairPrice is currently the market leader in Singapore, providing a wide range of products from fresh and frozen foods, household goods and many other products from around the world. “We realize that customers still recognize the value and quality of products made in Vietnam. For fresh products, we have strong demand for tropical fruits including dragon fruit, coconut, mango…” – a representative of Fair Price informed.
In order to export fresh fruit to the Singapore market, the product must meet the conditions required by the Food Authority of Singapore. Fresh fruit means fresh and unprocessed fruit. If the fruit has undergone processing such as cutting, peeling, canning, freezing, it will have to comply with the requirements for processed foods and the conditions for importing processed foods.
A representative of FairPrice also shared that they are looking forward to innovations in the beverage category including G7 instant coffee supplements as well as healthy drinks. After attending FoodExpo in November 2022 in Vietnam, FairPrice found that in general, the reasonable prices of Vietnamese goods always show efficiency.
“We are still observing and listening from the Vietnamese market about new products that we can bring to life in Singapore. We welcome Vietnamese products in Singapore. The best way to find out what Singaporean customers really want is to visit the place and talk to the customer,” said a FairPrice representative.
Source: https://congthuong.vn/tim-kiem-co-hoi-dua-nong-san-viet-nam-vao-thi-truong-singapore-263385.html