The 8th international exhibition focused on providing information on opportunities and challenges from the EVFTA Agreement for businesses in the food and beverage industry and how to approach the market using digital platforms.

EVFTA is likened to an important highway that directly connects the Vietnamese economy with the EU. With a wide range of commitments, a deep degree of liberalization and high standard commitments, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), is expected to create both momentum and pressure for businesses in Vietnam to grow faster, become more competitive and overcome the limitations they are facing to access the EU market.

In addition, with the strong development of digital technology, the provision of products and services to consumers has surpassed the limit of both time distance and geographical space, and increasingly meets the needs of consumers as well as minimizing operation costs. Digital technology creates the foundation for equality between businesses in accessing knowledge and accessing markets.

Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Tam, Director of the SME Support Center, VCCI said that in the past two years, despite many changes in the world economic situation such as the Covid-19 epidemic, logistics and supply chain crises; however, the EVFTA has quickly brought into play its positive effects, not only being a lever for two-way trade, but also a preeminent advantage to support the business communities of the two sides to maintain and develop business activities.

In the first eight months of 2022, the two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and the EU reached US$42.4 billion, up 14.85% over the same period last year.

Vietnam's goods exports to the EU market mostly recorded good growth. The structure of export products also tends to expand and diversify when key commodities achieve impressive growth such as machinery and equipment (up 34.8%), textiles and garments (41.2%) )… and the turnover of many agricultural, forestry and fishery products also increased at a high rate such as coffee (up 54.4%), seafood (41.9%), vegetables and fruits (18%). 

However, considering the market share of Vietnamese goods in Europe is still very modest, Vietnam's exports to this market are only about 40 billion USD, accounting for less than 2% of the total import demand of the EU.

Explaining the modest market share of Vietnamese products in Europe, including food and beverage products, LS. Dinh Anh Tuyet, Head of IDVN Law Office, VIAC Arbitrator, said that although the advantage of Vietnam's food and beverage industry is that the source of raw materials (originating from agricultural products) in the country is quite abundant, the volume is large; cheap labor; low production costs, high price competitiveness, but the industry also has limitations in terms of scale and capital; manual and rudimentary domestic raw material supply system, many scattered stages leading to difficulty in traceability and quality control; food quality and safety are still not high; export products are mainly raw products, which have not been deeply refined; products have not been focused on building brands and brands, so the value is low and not recognized by foreign consumers; has not focused on learning about commitments in FTAs nor updating technical standards and requirements on food biology of importing member countries.

According to Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Tam, to make better use of the opportunities brought by EVFTA, businesses must act. The two actions that must be taken first are to understand regulations and increase market access.