There is room for Vietnamese exporters to further exploit the Chinese market, said Tran Van Cong, Vice Director of the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority (Agrotrade) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, at a conference in Can Tho city on October 30.

An overview of the conference

Cong noted that China is a huge market for agro-fisheries products with a value of about 160 billion USD per year, including 9-10 billion USD of fruit and vegetable imports, about 10 billion USD of aquatic products, 10 billion USD of milk and 2-2.5 billion USD of rice.

Vietnam only exported 8.6 billion USD worth of agro-forestry-fisheries products to the market in 2018 and 6 billion USD in the first nine months of this year, he said, holding that the figures remain too modest.

He advised exporters to find updates on new regulations in China and strive to meet all the market’s requirements.

Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam Hu Suojin said that the majority of Chinese consumers like Vietnamese fruits.

The 1.4-billion-strong market spends about 2 trillion USD to import goods each year, which will rise to 10 trillion USD in the next five years, the official noted.

On average, each year, a Chinese person consumes 30kg of milk, 40kg of pork and 50kg of fruits, he said.

Hu said that in the first nine months of this year, import-export revenue between Vietnam and China exceeded 110 billion USD, up 7.1 percent year on year.

With the current per capita income of over 10,000 USD per year, Chinese people’s living conditions are rising and their demand for goods are increasing, he stated.

Hu said it is necessary to further connect Vietnamese firms with their Chinese peers and provide them with more information on technical requirements in China.