Ambassador Andrew meets with Mr Trinh Xuan Truong, Chairman of Lao Cai People‘s Committee.

Strong bilateral relationships between government officials, trading enterprises and industry associations continue to improve market access, deepen commercial engagement, and strengthen technical collaboration across our shared agri-food and fiber supply-chains.

Vietnam is now the dominant source of imported prawns into Australia, having steadily increased its market share over recent years at the expense of regional competitors. This reflects the Vietnamese shrimp industry’s production advantages and compelling international value proposition. Vietnamese furniture and wood products continue to be highly regarded in the Australian domestic market for their quality and price which has driven an expansion in their trade volumes. Australian consumers continue to enjoy in increasing abundance the delights of a wide variety of Vietnamese horticultural products sold as fresh, frozen, dried, processed, powdered, and juiced products. While Vietnamese fish, cashews, coffee, and rice are also prominent in the Australian market due to their strong demand and consumer appeal.

Australian exports of consumer-ready dairy, seafood, wine, fresh horticultural produce, and quality meats provide the Vietnamese domestic market with greater diversity, extended windows of seasonal availability and enhanced consumer choice. Importantly these high-end products also support the enrichment of Vietnam’s reputation as a global food and culinary destination further bolstering Vietnam’s attraction to international tourists.

Many Vietnamese importers consider Australia their supply-chain partner of choice for sourcing premium food and fiber commodity ingredients and livestock feed. Australian wheat is used for noodles, breads and biscuits, barley and malt for making beer, and cotton for spinning into yarn that fuels the prosperous Vietnamese textile and apparel industry. Australian live cattle support Vietnamese beef supply-chains and allow provincial communities to capture the benefits of local feed lotting and meat processing. Australian beef also helps reduce Vietnam’s dependence on traditional animal protein sources thereby mitigating biosecurity-related threats to Vietnam’s food security. Australian grain is an important source of feed for Vietnam’s intensive livestock industries which are set to capitalize on emerging export opportunities as Vietnam further leverages its competitive advantages in food processing.

Ambassador Andrew gets a lesson from the Hung Hien Cooperative in making vermicelli.

Commercially exploiting the embedded attributes of high-quality Australian commodities can assist Vietnamese agribusinesses to deliver enhanced value for downstream customers. The technical market development support delivered by Australia’s agricultural export industries is an increasingly important feature of the Vietnam-Australia agricultural partnership and helps Australia to expand and diversify its export markets. By enhancing supply-chain competitiveness and resilience, this creates shared value for trading partners and enhances mutual prosperity. Australia’s reputation for sustainable, low-emission agricultural outputs afford additional supply chain advantages, particularly for Vietnam’s international customers demanding fully traceable product ingredients of known provenance.

Australia is proud to supply Vietnam with premium agri-food and fiber products that generate local economic activity, create provincial jobs and wealth, support Vietnam’s food security task, and contribute to Vietnamese agri-export revenue. In turn, Australian importers and consumers look forward to accessing a broader range of high-quality Vietnamese agricultural produce as the trade partnership continues to thrive.

By Australian Embassy Vietnam