Bring the ‘Vietnamese taste’ to Thailand consumers

Following the success of previous organizations, the 2023 Vietnamese Goods Week in Thailand themed “The Magical Taste of Vietnam” has been first introduced, promoting culture, tourism and regional specialties from the Mekong Delta, Ho Chi Minh City. 

The event displays and introduced a number of OCOP products from provinces and cities, opening up trading opportunities for nearly 100 Vietnamese enterprises joining in connecting, trading with other retail distributions in Thaland as well as setting direct meeting with businessmen, clients to seek opportunities for commercial cooperation and investments.

The event was attended by Mr. Jurin Laksanawisit, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade of Thailand, Mr. Do Thang Hai, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, Mr. Huynh Chi Nguyen, Vice Chairman of Bac Lieu Provincial People's Committee and leaders of the People's Committee of Bac Lieu province and other leaders of provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City.

This is an opportunity to show the good diplomatic relations and cooperation between the Governments and people of the two countries in many fields such as economy, trade, investment, culture and especially agricultural products.

The program takes place on 2 main areas of CentralwOrld Trade Center with an area of ​​nearly 1,000m2 out of a total area of 800,000m2 of CentralwOrld, divided into 4 main areas, focusing on introducing and promoting specialty product groups. of the South and typical products across the country, specifically:

Long An province introduced cakes made from moringa, rice paper of all kinds, spring rolls, sausages, grilled spring rolls, dried fruits, and fine art goods. Ben Tre province has crispy desiccated coconut, coconut candy, coconut jelly of all kinds. Kien Giang introduces traditional fish sauce with Phu Quoc geographical indication, organic rice.

Bac Lieu has dried shrimp, frozen seafood, shrimp puff pastry, fruit and vegetable puff pastry, pre-processed bird's nest. Tra Vinh has products from coconut. Dong Thap has original dried lotus, condensed mango, condensed soursop, condensed red dragon fruit and An Giang has pomelo snack, seed sauce, shrimp salt, etc. 

The area to introduce typical products of enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City includes: specialty coffee, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, bird's nests, ready-made bird's nests, herbal extracts, handicrafts, home appliances.

The area to promote OCOP products from many provinces and cities in Vietnam includes lacquer paintings, silk products, decorative products made from sedge, rattan, bamboo and handmade jewelry products. 

The food service area introduces typical Southern Vietnamese dishes such as My Tho noodle soup, grilled pork vermicelli, fried meat vermicelli, snakehead fish porridge, all prepared by the university's skilled chefs from GO supermarket!.

On this occasion, the first time the program introduces Vietnam's unique tea culture with a performance of traditional ethnic music, and especially a performance of calligraphy painting by famous artists.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Jurin Laksanawisit remarked that the countries share a close and robust relationship within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The trade event, according to him, provides a great opportunity to enhance the bilateral trade, investment, and tourism ties.

He stressed that Thailand and Vietnam are two countries with close and strong relationships in ASEAN. By setting a goal of bringing bilateral trade turnover to at least 25 billion USD by 2025, in the last 2022 alone, trade turnover between Thailand and Vietnam reached 21.5 billion USD.

Thailand is currently Vietnam's largest trading partner in the ASEAN region. While Vietnam is Thailand's fifth most important trading partner and second largest in the ASEAN region.

Addressing the opening ceremony on August 16, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai emphasised that in recent years, the Vietnamese government has facilitated the direct exports to distribution systems in various markets, including Thailand. The 2023 Vietnamese Goods Week in Thailand is expected to boost the positive growth of the nations’ trade via connecting hundreds of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

After many years of organization, the event has created a strong spillover, contributing positively to the growth of two-way import and export turnover between the two countries through connecting hundreds of small and medium enterprises to promote local products to the Thai market.

The event is an important stepping stone for products of the Mekong Delta, Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces and cities to penetrate modern retail channels in Thailand, strengthen economic ties and promote cultural heritage richness of Vietnam.

Vietnamese GlobalGAP longan sold for 230,000/kg in Thailand

On August 18, consumers shopping at Tops supermarket, located in CentralwOrld Trade Center in Bangkok, Thailand, can buy Vietnamese longans, which are cultivated in line with GlobalGAP standards, harvested in growing areas with codes reaching qualifying standards.

This is the result after many efforts of Central Retail Group and its partners in promoting the export of Vietnamese longan to the Thai market through modern retail channels.

With an attractive promotional price of 259 baht/500g, reduced to only 169 baht/500g (about 230,000 VND/kg), it is expected that more than 2 tons of longan from the Mekong Delta will be consumed on the system of Retail Tops of Central Retail Thailand on this occasion.

Mr. Paul Le, Vice President of Central Retail Group in Vietnam, said: Currently, longan is in season. Last year, Central Retail tested exporting nearly 1 ton of longan fruit to Thailand and received a lot of love from consumers. That is also the reason why this year's longan exports grew by 140% compared to the previous year.

The fact that Central Retail cooperates with partners to successfully export lychee and longan to Thailand shows that this market has a lot of potential and many opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to seek cooperation and trading opportunities.