Vietnamese businesses can open their representative offices and ask for licences for aquaculture and agro-forestry and fisheries product processing in Egypt to benefit from the country’s export preferential policies to other Middle East markets, said an Egyptian official.
Addressing a seminar on enhancing Vietnam-Egypt agro-fisheries cooperation held in Cairo, Egypt, on Sept. 26, Head of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce’s External Relations Section Hosam Baharia said two-way trade will increase fast as Egypt has a big demand for coffee, tea and other farm products and Vietnam’s high-quality and diversified products will meet Egyptian consumers’ different tastes.
For his part, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said that two-way trade between the two countries recorded a year-on-year rise of 24 percent to more than 200 million USD last year with Vietnam ’s seafood exports making a large proportion.
In the context of the global economic crisis and unfavourable information on Vietnam ’s seafood quality in Egypt in the past, the increase is a positive sign of the two countries’ cooperation potential, reflecting Vietnam ’s seafood quality and prestige to Egyptian consumers, Tan said.
The result was attributable to the exchange of information and working delegations and other trade promotion activities, he said.
He went on to say that Egypt highly valued Vietnam ’s environmental-friendly agro-forestry and fisheries production process that meets quality and hygienic safety requirements.
Apart from fisheries, Vietnamese businesses expect that their cashew nuts, pepper and coffee will penetrate Egypt with a population of around 85 million people and other Middle East markets.
Vietnam ’s agro-forestry and fisheries export revenues has increased over recent years to almost 16.5 billion USD by the end of 2009. Vietnam ’s seafood has been exported to more than 150 countries and territories. However, Vietnam ’s agro-forestry and fisheries market-share at Northern Africa, especially Egypt , remained modest and failed to meet the two countries’ potential and demand.
While in Cairo from Sept. 25-28, a number of Vietnamese businesses participated in the Agriculture and Food International Exhibition in Cairo./.