(vasep.com.vn) Vietnam and Belgium governments are discussing plans to establish a seafood distribution centre at the port of Zeebrugge in northwestern Belgium, said the Belgian Ambassador in Vietnam, Bruno Angelet, during the meeting with the Ministry of Industry and Trade on July 23rd 2013.
The distribution centre is expected to facilitate Vietnam seafood exporters access into the large Belgian market that counts more than 11 million of consumers. The centre is considered particularly lucrative as it helps in establishing a toehold to the wider EU market, as Belgium is considered a key distribution hub among varied commodity value chains in Europe. Most commodities imported into Belgium, in fact, are re-exported in Europe. Therefore, Vietnam exporters could access easily to other markets in the EU block.
Vietnam government has chosen to lead off with seafood to establish its center, being this item one of the fastest-growing exports to Europe. In 1999, Vietnam had only 17 seafood companies eligible to export their products to EU, but the number has now risen to 415. Vietnam seafood products are commercialized in over 160 countries and territories and the country is put into top 10 largest seafood exporters in the world, reporting annual growths for many consecutive years. In addition to the U.S. and Japan, EU is one of the three largest importers of Vietnam seafood. EU averagely made up 18.5 percent of Vietnam’s total seafood export revenue. The main seafood products exported to EU are pangasius, shrimp, marine finfish and cephalopod. In order to gain these achievements, Vietnam fishery industry both complies with the principles stated for traceability and GlobalGAP standards in aquaculture and abides by EU’s regulations on the management of quality, safety and hygiene in seafood production.
Despite being one of the largest pangasius exporters, Vietnam exporters are facing a lot of challenges to affirm their brand name, holding initiative in international trade transactions with foreign partners. Thus, establishing the seafood distribution center in Belgium will contribute to boosting market transparency, increasing seafood export value, fetching exporters higher profit and raising prestige of Vietnam’s agro products in the global market. Besides, the distribution center will help exporters in monitoring supply-demand trends on the global market and offer suitable business plans, avoid the situation of “high export prices amid undersupply” and “declining prices amid bumper harvest”. To join in the distribution center, seafood exporters must clarify their information to attract the buyers.
Vietnam is in the process of negotiating the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with EU. When the FTA negotiation will be concluded, the distribution centre is expected to offer a great opportunity for Vietnam seafood companies to penetrate capillary into EU – one of Vietnam’s leading partners in trade. Thus, Vietnam hopes that Belgium will continue to support Vietnam in implementing this important project. This will be a foundation stone for Vietnam to open more distribution centers for other commodities in the future, said Tran Tuan Anh, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade.