HCM City (VNA) – The southeastern coastal province of Ba Ria-VungTau has been paying attention to trade promotion with a goal to bring local keyproducts to more markets and raise their value.

Asserting local strengths

Leaders of the province’sCentre for Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion said Ba Ria – Vung Tau has awide range of products in various industries and services, from fisheries,cultivation, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, petrochemicals to travel,maritime transport and logistics services.  

The network of wholesale and retail establishments has reached all districtsand cities in the province, comprising of many large-scale and modernfacilities like department stores, commercial centres, supermarkets andlogistics centres (supplying goods storage, sorting and transporting services).

Therefore, the province has great potential in trade promotion, particularlyfor fisheries and farming sectors, which supply large and stable volumes ofproducts in diverse kinds, meeting the demand of both domestic consumption andexport.

According to statistics of the provincial Centre for Investment, Trade andTourism Promotion, the province is home to about 130 enterprises and 290household businesses engaging in aquatic product processing. Of them, over 40factories have satisfied HACCP (Hazard Analysisand Critical Control Point System) standards with total capacity of morethan 250,000 tonnes of products a year. Some 30 facilities have received EU Code of Export Compliance certificates,while most of the remaining facilities have met requirements for exporting tothe US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Brazil regarding key productssuch as surimi, shrimp, fish, octopus, and crab in either frozen, fillets orprocessed forms. Ba Ria-Vung Tau’s aquatic products have been exported to morethan 40 countries and territories worldwide.

Local processing facilities are capable of supplying large volumes of productsto wholesale and retail networks in and outside the province.

As for the agriculturalsector, Ba Ria - Vung Tau is aiming to become a hi-tech agricultural hub atnational level. At present, the province counts more than 50 businesses,cooperatives and establishments operating in cultivation and farm produceprocessing. More than 30 of them have been granted certificates of food safetyand Good Agriculture Practice (GAP).

Deputy Director of theprovincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Do Minh Tuan saidthe province produces a diverse range of farm produce, such as bean and nutproducts (coffee, cashew nut, pepper bean and cacao bean), fruits (green-skinpomelo, longan, banana) and safe vegetables, among others. He affirmed thatlocal products have good quality, meeting strict requirements of both domesticand foreign consumers and businesses. 

Enhancing trade connectivity

Leaders of the Centre for Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion said theprovince has constantly promoted and reformed trade promotion work, bolsterede-commerce and enhanced trade connectivity so as to facilitate access to materialsupply sources and markets of businesses both in and outside the province.

The province has proactively provided information to enterprises and supportedthem in promoting their brands, expanding distribution channels, increasingmarket share and reaching out to potential and important domestic and foreignmarkets.

Regarding trade promotion for farm produce, particularly products of the OCOP(One Commune One Product) programme, the provincial Department of Agricultureand Rural Development has coordinated with relevant agencies to organize tradepromotion events focusing on those products. The department also workedtogether with the Department of Information and Communication, the Departmentof Industry and Trade, and Vietnam Airlines to introduce local products one-commerce platforms and chains of stores and supermarkets. Nearly 23,790digital accounts and hundreds of shops on commercial platforms have beencreated for local products. The department also encouraged makers of certifiedOCOP products to attend exhibitions and trade fairs to introduce theirproducts./.