In Ho Chi Minh City, the Argentine Embassy in Vietnam recently coordinated with the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) to organize the Workshop "Argentina - Vietnam Business Opportunities".
Speaking at the workshop, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Argentina to Vietnam, Mr. Marcos Antonio Bednarski, emphasized that Vietnam is currently Argentina's leading strategic and important partner in Asia, after China and India. He assessed that trade relations between the two countries are on a strong growth path.
As evidence for this statement, he cited 2024 figures showing that two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Argentina reached 4.1 billion USD, up 19% over the previous year. Of which, Vietnam exported to Argentina 520 million USD (down 46.7%), while imports from Argentina reached 3.58 billion USD (up 45%).
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| Vietnamese and Argentine businesses discuss cooperation opportunities on the sidelines of the workshop. |
Continuing the upward trend, in just the first 4 months of 2025, bilateral trade turnover reached 1.48 billion USD, an increase of 67% over the same period last year.
Of which, Vietnam's exports to Argentina reached 357 million USD (up 316%), while imports reached 1.12 billion USD (up 40%).
In terms of commodity structure, Vietnam exports to Argentina key items such as: phones and components, computers, electronic products, footwear, machinery, equipment, textile and garment materials, leather and footwear...
On the other hand, the main imported items from Argentina include: corn, soybeans, cotton, vegetable oils and fats, animal feed and raw materials. These items account for 92% of the total import value, in which Argentina is currently one of the largest suppliers of corn and animal feed to Vietnam.
The delegation to Vietnam this time included many Argentine businesses operating in the food and beverage sector, along with representatives of agricultural organizations such as: Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, Center for Poultry Enterprises (CEPA), Federation of Meat Processing Industries (FIFRA), Institute for the Promotion of Beef (IPCVA) and Chamber of Commerce of the Grain Exporting Oil Industry (CIARA-CEC).
Further demonstrating the diverse cooperation between the two countries, Ambassador Marcos Antonio Bednarski said that a few weeks ago, a shipment of 560 km of fiber optic cable and the first 500 modems produced by Viettel arrived at the port of Buenos Aires. “This is the beginning of a new process, the first stage of a very promising new era,” he emphasized.
He also cited the example of a closed supply chain between the two economies, where Argentine businesses export raw hides to Vietnam to be processed into shoes, and then the finished products are exported back to Argentina. “It is a mutually beneficial value chain,” he said.
Despite the geographical distance between the two countries of up to 17,000 km, according to Mr. Bednarski, the two sides have found ways for bilateral trade to continue to grow.
On the Vietnamese business side, Mr. Nguyen Duc, Director of Argrifood Company, assessed that the potential for cooperation between Vietnamese and Argentine businesses is huge, especially in the agricultural sector.
However, he also raised concerns about logistics as the long distance makes transporting goods challenging. For example, exporting a container of goods to Argentina can take up to three months, resulting in huge logistics costs.
In addition, the continuous increase in shipping costs in recent times has also caused many difficulties in import and export activities between the two countries. "This is a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if the two sides want to promote effective and sustainable cooperation in the future," Mr. Duc suggested.
Providing more information to businesses of the two countries, Mr. Tran Ngoc Liem, Director of VCCI Ho Chi Minh City, said that the two countries are actively promoting negotiations on the Vietnam - MERCOSUR Free Trade Agreement. This is expected to be a big boost in economic, trade and investment relations between Vietnam and the South American market bloc.
Once signed, this FTA will help remove many tariff barriers, making it easier for each country's strong goods and services to access partner markets.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/doanh-nghiep-viet-nam---argentina-tim-co-hoi-hop-tac-trong-ky-nguyen-moi-d321306.html
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