Tailor exports to Japan: expert
Tailor exports to Japan: expert
Enterprises should improve production capacity and pay more attention to marketing campaigns in an effort to accelerate exports to the Japanese market, said Vietnamese trade counsellor in Japan Nguyen Trung Dung at a three-day trade fair held last weekend in the Japanese prefecture of Saitama.
The event, held to facilitate exports of Vietnamese goods to this lucrative market, was organised by Japanese retailer Aeon Group along with the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan and Vietnam Airlines.
Establishing firm co-operation with Japanese retailers was important, Dung said, pointing to garments, seafood, wood products, handicrafts and fruit as items that Vietnamese companies could ship to the Japanese market.
Vietnamese goods currently claim only a tiny market share in Japan due to small production scale and quality that fails to match the demands of the market, he added.
Aeon vice president and senior executive manager Hiroshi Yokoo said Vietnamese agriculture exporters needed to perfect product preservation methods if they wanted to more effectively penetrate the Japanese market.
Many Vietnamese companies were unable to receive import certificates from Japanese authorities to ship fruit, for instance, due to their failure to meet food preservation requirements, he said.
Yokoo said his group stood ready to introduce Viet Nam's culture and popular consumer products, including garments, handicrafts, and food products to Japanese consumers.
Relations between the two countries, especially in trade, investment and tourism, have developed significantly in recent years, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa said at the event. Bilateral trade hit US$21 billion last year and stood at $12 billion in the first half of this year.
Japan was now also the leading source of foreign investment in Viet Nam with around 1,700 projects worth a total of $28 billion.
Thoa said she hoped that last weekend's event, also held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 2013, would help open up a new page for theco-operation in commerce and tourism.
vietnamnews
