Accelerating cooperation and market share expansion

Viet Nam and the UK are considered highly complementary markets, with little direct competition in agricultural imports and exports. Viet Nam’s key export items, such as seafood, timber, coffee, fruits and vegetables, cashew nuts, and handicrafts, are in high demand in the UK. In return, Viet Nam imports products from the UK including pesticides, animal feed ingredients, seafood, and rubber.

Against the backdrop of continued growth in agricultural trade, Viet Nam’s exports to the UK reached nearly 883 million USD in 2024, up 15.4% over the same period in 2023, while the two sides’ efforts to strengthen and expand cooperation have become an urgent priority.

Key products such as seafood, wood, coffee, vegetables, cashew nuts, and Vietnamese handicrafts are all groups of goods in high demand in the UK.

With a population of over 70 million and an annual demand for agricultural and food imports worth approximately 67 billion USD, the UK offers vast opportunities for Vietnamese agricultural products if they meet quality, traceability, and environmental standards.

Viet Nam’s key agricultural exports remain highly favoured in the UK market. According to Phuong Hoang, Chairman of the Viet Nam Business Association in the UK (VBUK), British enterprises are seeking stable, high-quality, and reliable sources of agricultural products. With its existing strengths, Viet Nam can fully tap into this potential if it can meet stringent quality and green standards.

Executive Director of the British Coffee Association Paul Rooke noted that Vietnamese robusta coffee has great potential in the UK. However, businesses must gain deep market insight and strictly comply with regulations on fair trade, environmental protection, and traceability.

Drawing from practical business experience, Thi Minh Phuong, Product Development Director at Longdan Group Nguyen — one of the UK’s largest importers of Vietnamese goods, highlighted the importance of retaining local product names (such as Cao Phong oranges or Nam Roi pomelos) in brand building. She also stressed the value of combining digital marketing with in-store product experiences to make Vietnamese goods more accessible and memorable for the consumers in the UK.

Thai Tran, CEO of TT Meridian Ltd, a company specialising in importing Vietnamese fruits and food, said that products such as pomelos, coconuts, dragon fruit, and passion fruit are now available in major supermarket chains in the UK like Waitrose, M&S, and Tesco.

However, he cautioned that the advantages provided by the UK-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) may not last long, as the UK is actively negotiating and signing other trade agreements. Therefore, Vietnamese businesses must enhance product quality, upgrade technology, and control costs to remain competitive through core value creation.

He suggested that Vietnamese authorities coordinate with businesses to organise national branding programmes, such as “Vietnamese Goods Week” in the UK, to raise the profile of Vietnamese agricultural products across major cities and even rural areas in this promising market.

Strengthening value chain linkages and quality control to expand the UK market

Assessing the key drivers for boosting bilateral agricultural trade, Daniel Zeichner, Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, stated that this is a favourable time to promote two-way trade in agriculture.

Minister Zeichner emphasised the importance of quality control and food safety in the process of opening the UK market to Vietnamese agricultural products. Based on the memorandum of understanding signed in 2022, the two sides will implement an action plan focusing on inspection, hygiene assessment, risk evaluation, and traceability for major product lines.

“The two sides should consider further opening the market to Vietnamese agricultural goods. However, to realise this goal, strengthening food safety control is crucial,” Zeichner noted.

It is crucial to strengthen links to promote agricultural product consumption to the UK market.

The UK Minister also recommended that UK's Agriculture, Food, and Drink Attaché to Viet Nam play a more active role in supporting market connectivity and fostering bilateral cooperation programmes.

Agreeing with this view, Tran Thanh Nam, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, proposed that UK industry associations hold regular annual activities to connect with Vietnamese businesses and associations to promote and develop consumption markets for British products.

He also urged that Vietnamese associations and enterprises collaborate with their UK counterparts to bring Vietnamese business delegations to participate in trade promotion events in the UK market, such as fairs, exhibitions, market surveys, and consumer trend studies.

“I propose that agricultural associations in both countries establish a linkage mechanism, association to association, and form business groups along the supply chain (cold storage, preservation, transportation, bonded warehouses, distribution channels, supermarkets, etc.) to comply with product value chain regulations and reduce logistics costs. This will ensure product quality from production to the end consumer,” Deputy Minister Nam stated.

In addition, Nam emphasised the need for Vietnamese enterprises to strengthen joint ventures and partnerships with UK businesses in production and processing, to meet regulatory requirements and align with consumer preferences in the UK. This would create favourable conditions for deeper penetration into distribution channels, supermarkets, and the Vietnamese business community in the UK.