Vietnam’s agricultural products, including dragon fruit and pangasius, are likely to seek to make greater inroads into the Indian market in the future as opposed to the Chinese market due to the difficulties that the northern neighbour faces in the form of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

As a result, the industry and trade sector has been devising plans aimed at helping Indian businesses and consumers gain more insights into the local market in order to increase consumption of a range of the country’s agricultural and aquatic products.

On the sidelines of State Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh's recent visit to India, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung took part in a number of bilateral meetings.

These discussions took place alongside Indian agencies and associations, including Retail Consultant, Lots Wholesale, Om Shree Shubh Labh, Reliance Retail, and Mother Dairy in order to find ways of introducing domestic agricultural products to the Indian market and its 1.3 billion consumers.

Mohit Singla, Chairman of the India Trade Promotion Council, believes that Vietnamese dragon fruit are of a higher quality than those found in other countries. Despite this, many Indian consumers have little knowledge about this type of fruit.

He recommended that the nation should therefore move to intensify advertisements and branding of local fruit in the near future as a way of helping Indian consumers learn more about the product.

In addition, he noted that the country’s litchi, longan, and rambutan are also delicious fruits blessed with unique flavours that are able to compete for market shares in India.

Each year, India hosts between 40 and 50 fairs in the agricultural and food industry, which offers a opportunity for domestic firms to introduce their products. Most notably, Indus Foods represents one of the largest and most prestigious fairs in the sector.

Over the past two years, the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade along with the Vietnamese Embassy's trade office in India, have been active in organizing delegations of local enterprises to attend the fairs as a means of seeking partners.