HCMC – Vietnam’s shipments to the 12 new member states of the EU are rising sharply recently, according to statistics from the European Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In the January-August period, Vietnam’s exports to Lithuania more than tripled year-on-year to US$10.9 million from US$3 million. Czech Republic imports from Vietnam rose 212% over the same period of last year, hitting US$57 million.
Exports to other markets, including Estonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, rose by between 20% and nearly 130% in January-August.
Despite the sharp rise, exports to these countries are still far lower than those to major traditional EU markets, including Germany with over US$1 billion of imports from Vietnam in the period.
The department also said total exports from Vietnam to the EU market increased by more than 17% to US$4 billion in the period.
Rob van Eijbergen, a special representative of the Center for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI), told the Daily in a recent meeting that new EU-12 with 105 million consumers is the potential market for Vietnamese producers.
The expert, who works for an agency of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained that the markets need cheap products with no strict requirements on quality. He, however, suggested that targeting the undemanding new EU member states shouldn’t be long-term.
“If Vietnam producers can access choosy markets such as the EU-15, they can conquer other strict markets,” said Eijbergen.
While the EU-12 markets are undemanding and looking for cheap-priced products, the other 15 member states of the EU are raising up their technical requirements on imports, especially food products, such as stricter control on residue levels.
In the meeting with local exporters, Eijbergen said that Vietnam exporters needed to follow food safety protocols and could not access supermarkets without GLOBALGAP standards for food products. The consumers in these markets also have requirements on producers’ social responsibilities relating to child labor, workplace and environment issues.
Therefore, new technical barriers are expected to be challenges to Vietnamese exporters in the coming time, he said, adding the market that accounts for 45% of the total world imports is still under pressure due to crisis.
“Last year, not only exports from Vietnam but also from other suppliers in the world to the EU market decreased. I’m not sure whether the market will improve next year, but I hope it’ll be better,” said the expert.
