The advice came at a conference entitled “FTA EU-Vietnam (EVFTA), rules and regulation when exporting to Sweden and the EU,” which was held by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Swedish National Board of Trade and Sweden’s Embassy on Tuesday.

Camilla Mellander, Sweden’s ambassador to Vietnam, said that studying regulations and standards of the EU market carefully would help Vietnamese enterprises have the upper hand over other exporters.

The ambassador said Sweden appreciated Vietnam’s role in Asean and the country had many opportunities as an equal win-win partner with Sweden. Moreover, Vietnamese companies can co-operate with Swedish partners in search of the best solutions for the markets of both countries.

Nesti Almufti, an expert on commercial policy under the Swedish National Board of Trade, said the EU had been the second biggest importer in the world and Vietnam had every chance to boost its exports to the market.

However, most of Vietnamese goods had low value and easily suffered the effects of fluctuation in the world market.

Vietnamese exporters should conduct more market research to find out the purchasing power, tastes and diversity of the EU market, Almufti said, and added that perception and adaptability, especially to technical barriers, were vital for success in the EU market.

Tran Ngoc Quan, deputy head of the ministry’s European Market Department, said the EU was one of Vietnam’s key partners in the country’s export strategy by 2020 with a vision to 2030.

He advised the business community to carefully study information to figure out possible impacts on their export products in order to work out a proactive action plan on orientating markets, seeking partners, and reforming production methods and administration associated with social responsibility and business culture.

Statistics from the ministry showed that Vietnam’s main export products to Sweden include seafood, rubber, plastic, and bags, in addition to wood and wooden products, garments, textiles and shoes. The country imported machinery, equipment, tools, and spare parts, apart from phones from Sweden.

Last year, Vietnam imported US$240 million and exported $698 million from and to Sweden, respectively. It is expected that the two-way trade turnover would see strong growth as EVFTA comes into effects in 2018.

UK ideal for shrimp exports

Vietnamese enterprises should foster their shrimp exports to the United Kingdom as exports to other markets were tending to slow down, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep) has suggested.

According to Vasep, the UK demand of warm-water shrimp would continue to rise in the time to come. That would result in many opportunities for Vietnamese firms, who had advantages in producing value-added shrimp products, to expand their market share. Vietnamese shrimp exports to the UK have enjoyed remarkable growth in recent months, Vasep said.

The association cited statistics from the General Department of Customs showing that exports of Vietnamese shrimp to the market reached US$17.3 million in the first two months, up 38 per cent year-on-year. In that period, the UK accounted for 4.6 per cent of Vietnam’s total shrimp export turnover. It also surpassed Germany to become Vietnam’s biggest shrimp importer in the EU.

The impressive shrimp exports to the UK was attributed to the market’s greater demand of warm-water shrimp and the competitive price of exported Vietnamese shrimp.

Baocongthuong.com.vn quoted statistics from the International Trade Centre as saying that the price of Vietnamese shrimp in this market was about $11.5 per kilo, lower than that of Canada, Thailand and Bangladesh – the UK’s other main shrimp suppliers.

Vietnam’s shrimp export turnover was expected to reach $3.3 billion this year, a year-on-year increase of 12 per cent.