HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam and Poland both grow alot of agricultural products, but they are complementary to each other,offering them the opportunity to tie up, a bilateral business matching heard inHo Chi Minh City on February 24.

Nguyen Huu Nam, deputy director of the VCCI in HCM City, said:“Poland has high demand for Vietnamese products such as rice, basa fish, shrimp, mango, pineapple,passion fruit, coffee, and cashew, while Poland is capable of supplying Vietnamwith various EU-standard fresh and processed foods and fruits, beef, lamb, porkand others.”

Their trade and investment relations have made solid progress, butare still not commensurate with their traditional friendship and potential,partly due to the lack of information about each other's markets, he said.

Alexander Nowakowski, second secretary of Economic Affairs at thePolish embassy in Vietnam, speaking at a press briefing held before themeeting, said after COVID many business delegations have come to each othermarkets to seek co-operation opportunities.

The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement has also helped boost tradeties between the two countries.

Poland’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development LechKołakowski told the press briefing that his country is one of largest producersof food products such as pork, beef, chicken, fruits and vegetables, and dairyproducts in Europe, and exports them to more than 200 markets.

“Poland’s foods not only have high quality, but are also areabsolutely safe.”

The Government of Poland is paying great attention to expandingexport portfolios to Vietnam, he said, adding that his ministry is now workingwith its Vietnamese counterpart for finalising procedures to allow Polishexporters of beef, goose and duck access to the Southeast Asian country.

He hoped that beef, duck, goose meat from his country would soonbe available in Vietnam.

At a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment in Hanoi on February 23, he asked that Vietnam should also open upPolish barley and wheat, he said.

He said the agricultural products of the two countries do notcompete with each other.

Vietnam could become an important destination for the distributionof Polish agri-food products to the Asian region, and Poland is ready to do thesame for Vietnamese products headed Europe, he said.

Executives from 70 Vietnamese food companies and eight Polishcompanies met and exchanged information to seek business opportunities at thebusiness matching./.