A sizeable showroom for displaying Vietnamese food, foodstuff and drinks was opened at 92 - 96 Nguyen Hue Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City on November 11, 2005. This showroom is an initial step for series of trade promotion programmes of the city’s food and beverage industry, including the Food and Drink Trade Fair 2005, My Countryside Festival 2006, Sail China 2006 and Sail Paris 2006. The food and beverage industry is also one of the three industries that Ho Chi Minh City is encouraging through trade promotions by opening showrooms to introduce its products. Showrooms have attracted a lot of attention from domestic and foreign enterprises.
Food and foodstuffs - a major Vietnamese export area- make up 20.5 per cent of the industrial production value of Ho Chi Minh City. 65 per cent of foods and foodstuffs are produced for export. The export of foods and foodstuffs has brought in hard currency for the city and introduced Vietnamese gastronomy worldwide. This year’s showroom displayed Vietnamese staples like seafood, aquatic products, foods, foodstuffs, flavours, pork pies, basa fish, fish sauces, girdle cakes, fruit such as the Nam Roi grapefruit, Hoa Loc sweet mango, tea and coffee. 35 enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City and 17 enterprises from 12 provinces and cities nationwide took part in the showroom. To have an effective showroom, the city’s Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC) has actively cooperated with various domestic and foreign organisations to introduce the city’s products and seek export opportunities. ITPC asked international commercial organisations, commercial chambers of other countries in the city and Vietnamese representative, food companies and travel companies to introduce brokerage firms, buyers, investors and tourists to the showroom.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Tin, vice chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, said: After one year, the Vietnamese Export Goods Showroom in the city has become a reliable address with lots of information about products and enterprises. The showroom employs various advertisement and marketing forms from on-the-spot marketing to online marketing and e-customer care services. After more than one year, a series of garment and textile, furniture, handicraft, food and drink showrooms have generated great success. They have attracted more than 18,800 visitors, of which 1,213 showed their interests in exhibits, placed orders or wanted to work with enterprises and visit production factories. Each day, an average of 25 visitors want to buy displayed products or ask for product samples.
The showroom series have received 22 diplomatic economic delegations from China, India, the United States, Germany, South Korea, Romania, South Africa and others as well as central, provincial and municipal authorities nationwide. The display area also attracted the visit of Norwegian enterprises, Germany’s BBI Group, the Vietnam-US Commerce Office of Minnesota, the Laos’ Vientiane Department of Trade, China’s Guangdong Food Association, and Vietnamese commercial attachés in Chile, New Zealand, Spain, Morocco, Nigeria, Egypt and India. With their assistance, Vietnamese products will have more chances to enter the world market.
Consequently, more and more Vietnamese firms, trademarks and products have become known in foreign markets. Many contracts have been signed. ITPC are following 209 potential customers and helped enterprises sign 25 contracts worth US$1.95 million. In 2005 alone, five contracts worth US$200,000 were signed in the first food and drink showroom, six contracts worth US$1.6 million were signed in the second garment, textile, leather and shoe showroom and 11 contracts worth US$124,930 were signed at the second handicraft showroom. Major products in signed contracts are wool pullovers, embroidered bags, wooden table sets, wooden souvenirs, lacquers and porcelains and the main export markets are France, Germany, the United States and Japan.
Apart from direct introductions at the showroom, ITPC sent emails and introductory letters to over 10,000 international enterprises, consulate generals, Vietnamese commercial chambers in other countries and domestic and foreign business association.
ITPC also carried out special reportages on “North, central and south cook exchange programme” and “Roadmap to seek added values for garments, textiles, leather and shoes.” ITPC also broadcasted interviews with director of Nam An Restaurant about franchise, director of Pho 2000 about marketing strategies in the US, chefs of Sofitel Metropole Hanoi Hotel about fish sauces, designers Si Hoang and Vo Viet Chung about creativeness in Vietnamese garments and textiles. ITPC also hosted meetings with leading partisans like Sy Hoang and Vichamco (pottery), Thien Phuoc Cooperative (weaving), Hiep Phu Tho (carving and sculpture), Memory & Love (earthen flowers) and Van Thien Sa (sand picture). ITPC also helped enterprises advertise on Google website.
ITPC has organised seminars on improving quality, trademark and competitiveness of Vietnamese farm produces and handicrafts. The centre also has an online showroom, which has attracted nearly 1.6 million visitors.
Food and drink showroom, which focuses on displaying typical characteristics of gastronomy in three regions, will open until February 25, 2006.
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