Latin American supermarkets are coming to Vietnam to buy clothes, shoes, and food.

According to information from the Ministry of Industry and Trade , a series of leading distributors and retailers in Latin America have registered to attend the event "Connecting international supply chains - Vietnam International Sourcing 2024", and have high expectations in purchasing a large quantity of diverse goods.

One of the major retailers coming to Vietnam to look for suppliers is Falabella. This is the largest retailer in Latin America with a system of 577 stores and shopping centers operating in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay.

In 2023, the group sent a purchasing delegation to attend "Vietnam International Sourcing 2023", and immediately joined hands with Vietnamese partners to supply clothing and sports equipment products.

Fashion clothing is one of the Vietnamese product groups that Latin American retailers are looking to find large suppliers for in the 2024 international supply chain connection event. (Photo: TL)

Currently, Vietnamese products through retailer Falabella have directly reached 35 million regular customers in its store system in the Latin American region. According to the purchasing representative of this group, this year Falabella expects to expand its purchasing to areas from textiles, footwear, sportswear, electrical appliances, and household items.

Meanwhile, Mexican retail group Coppel is in need of importing up to 500,000 car tires annually. Coppel is also particularly interested in products originating from Vietnam such as fashion clothing, footwear, technology accessories, and household furniture to supply to more than 1,600 branches in Mexico and 27 stores in Argentina.

Meanwhile, a representative of Latiquim CA Group - a leading enterprise in the production and distribution of chemicals for the food and beverage industry, with an overwhelming market share in Venezuela, said that the company wants to find sustainable partners in Vietnam, especially in the field of sulfonic acid and phosphoric acid production.

In addition, the US Walmart group, with a series of supermarkets in the Latin American region, said that this year it will focus on purchasing textiles, footwear, interior and exterior furniture, household goods, toys, and frozen foods from Vietnam to serve the needs of consumers in the Latin American region.

Vietnam's frozen food is always the product that foreign importers are most interested in among export groups. (Photo: MPG)

Latin America has 33 countries, a population of over 670 million people, an import demand of nearly 1,500 billion USD, making it a potential market for Vietnam's exports. Within 5 years, two-way trade turnover between Latin America and Vietnam has increased by 1.5 times, from 14.2 billion USD in 2018 to 20.6 billion USD in 2023.

Vietnam and Latin America have complementary import-export commodity structures. Latin America is an export market for Vietnam’s key products such as textiles, footwear, agricultural and aquatic products, etc.

Latin America is also an important supplier of raw materials for Vietnam's manufacturing industry with key products such as corn, soybeans, animal feed, etc. Standards for imported goods into the Latin American market are mostly not too strict, suitable for many types of goods originating from Vietnam.

The event series “Connecting international supply chains” organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in coordination with the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City from June 6-8, at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center, is for 500 enterprises representing different fields in the international supply chain, with 5 focus industries: food, textiles, footwear, backpacks, handbags, sports and outdoor goods, household goods and furniture. The event promises to attract 10,000 visitors and traders from 30 countries and territories.

In particular, many large corporations in the world such as Aeon, Uniqlo (Japan); Walmart, Amazon, Safeway (USA); Carrefour, Decathlon (France); Central Group (Thailand); IKEA (Sweden) ... will gather at this event and participate throughout the trade connection programs.

Source