Vietnam and India Join Forces to Promote High-quality Development of Agricultural Product Trade

On the afternoon of December 17, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Indian Embassy in Vietnam, and the Indian Agricultural Products Export Promotion Association (APEDA) jointly held a seminar on “Vietnamese-Indian enterprises in the field of agricultural products and food processing trade docking”.

Deputy Director of the International Relations Committee of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Truong Thi Bi Ngoc spoke highly of the joint seminar held by the Indian Embassy in Vietnam and APEDA in his opening speech, which opened the door to trade opportunities for Vietnamese companies, especially those engaged in the agricultural products sector. In this way, we can enhance mutual understanding and open up new business opportunities for Vietnamese companies in India, a huge market with many development opportunities.

India is one of Vietnam’s top ten trading partners, with bilateral trade volume exceeding US$10 billion in 2020 and striving to increase trade to US$15 billion as soon as possible. Agricultural products are the most important commodities in bilateral trade relations.

Although the natural conditions of the two countries are similar, their markets are highly complementary, especially India, which has a population of nearly 1.4 billion, is a huge consumer market. Vietnam can export agricultural products, fresh fruits and processed food to India; cashew nuts, tea, coffee, pepper, spices and other products still have a lot of room for development.

Vietnam is located in the center of Southeast Asia, with a strategic location, a long coastline and adjacent to many international routes; the labor force is relatively young and the cost competitiveness is strong. Vietnam has signed 14 free trade agreements (FTAs) with more than 50 countries and regions, including the new generation of free trade agreements.

Xie Guangjian, director of the agricultural product trade policy department of the agricultural product processing and market development department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, said that in recent years, the agricultural product trade volume between the two countries has always remained at a constant level. In the first 11 months of 2021, the import and export volume of agricultural products between Vietnam and India will reach nearly US$1.7 billion; of which, Vietnam will export US$424 million to India and import nearly US$1.3 billion from India.