A wide range of Vietnamese goods have been gone on sale at stalls in Woolworths, one of the two largest supermarket chains in Australia, in the buildup to Vietnam’s traditional Lunar New Year Festival (Tet). 

A wide range of Vietnamese products are put for sale at Woolworths supermarket
(Photo: VNA)

Alongside popular products familiar with Australian consumers such as instant coffee, bottled coconut juice, confectionery, cashew nuts, and dry vermicelli, several typical Vietnamese items, including alum sugar and scrub chicken meat, are also available on the shelves of Woolworths’supermarkets.

Recent years has seen Vietnamese agricultural exports and processed food to Australia record a significant increase. Indeed, Coles Supermarket, a competitor to Woolworths, has marketed Vietnamese processed squid, shrimp, and basa fish in its frozen section.

Nguyen Phu Hoa, head of Vietnam’s Trade Office in Australia, said during the opening 11 months of last year, Australia’s total import volume endured a decline of 6% compared to the same period of 2019, while Vietnamese exports to Australia increased 2.65% to more than US$3.62 billion compared to 2019.

Statistics show two-way trade last year enjoyed a rise of 3.94% to US$8.2 billion over 2019.

Hoa also revealed that quality Vietnamese goods have diverse designs and are offered at reasonable prices in comparison to that from other countries, thereby attracting more Australian consumers.

He noted that the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia deployed numerous promotional schemes for Vietnamese products, such as red dragon fruit, durian, and construction materials last year.

Several local export items to the Australian market enjoyed robust export growth, with vegetables and fruit recording export growth of 43.85%, and seafood up 9.88%.

The Vietnamese Trade Office will continue to launch promotion programmes via Australia’s supermarkets, other distribution channels, and related websites for the upcoming Tet holiday, said Hoa.