Efforts to bring OCOP products to the international market

To bring OCOP products to the international market, coordination, creativity and innovation are needed from all levels, sectors and entities, OCOP cooperatives...

Opportunities and challenges

According to statistics from the General Department of Customs, the total import-export turnover of goods in the first 9 months of 2024 between Vietnam and its partners around the world reached 578.5 billion USD, up 16.3% over the same period in 2023. Of which, exports reached 299.7 billion USD, up 15.4%, imports reached more than 278.8 billion USD, up 17.3%.

In the context of the unpredictable world economic situation and the decline in demand for goods in many major markets, Vietnam's export growth in the first 9 months of this year is very encouraging. This shows the great efforts of businesses and authorities in improving the efficiency of exploiting traditional and new markets, making the most of incentives from free trade agreements (FTAs).

To support businesses, associations, and cooperatives in bringing OCOP products deeper into the international market, at the seminar "Connecting and promoting the consumption of OCOP products into modern distribution systems abroad", Ms. Cao Phuong Lan - representative of the European - American Market Department ( Ministry of Industry and Trade ) pointed out the advantages and challenges for Vietnam's export products.

Ms. Cao Phuong Lan - representative of the European - American Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) - spoke at the seminar. Photo: Phuong Cuc

According to Ms. Lan, Vietnam is enjoying many advantages in exporting goods. One of them is that the existing FTAs ​​with European and American market partners continue to have a positive impact, maintaining Vietnam's advantages in trade and investment activities. Next, the demand in the world market and the European and American regions is gradually recovering as inflation has begun to gradually decrease since the end of 2023.

In addition, the continued promotion of supply source diversification, supply chain diversification, and investment diversification by developed industrial countries has helped Vietnam become an important production and export center in the global value chain.

In addition, the trend of countries in Europe and America promoting green economy, digital transformation, and circular economy has opened up many new cooperation opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises.

Besides the advantages, there are also difficulties that Vietnamese enterprises are facing when exporting OCOP products to international markets.

One of the obvious difficulties is that the global economy is entering a new period, full of risks, challenges and unpredictability. Unabated inflation and rising service prices are hindering growth and significantly impacting the normalization of monetary policy and the recovery of consumer demand in countries.

Geopolitical conflicts that continue to drag on and are at risk of spreading to other regions are also among the existing difficulties. Specifically, the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to unfold with no end in sight, affecting the global economy as a whole. The Red Sea crisis caused by conflicts between countries in the Middle East has negatively impacted freight transport. In addition, political upheavals in major countries in the world such as the United States and the EU have also more or less affected Vietnam's export turnover.

On the other hand, the trend of “de-globalization” continues to rise strongly. Protectionist policies of countries are increasing. The fact that developed countries are increasingly concerned with issues of sustainable development, climate change prevention, and consumer safety continues to be the premise for setting up new, more stringent standards for imported products.

Countries are diversifying their supply sources to avoid dependence on China. Specifically, countries in the European and American bloc are tending to focus on finding supply sources from a number of partners close to their markets and with similar production bases to Vietnam such as Türkiye, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh... which has increased competition in Vietnam's export markets.

Promote OCOP products "exporting"

Up to now, Vietnam has had nearly 10,000 products meeting OCOP standards of 3 stars or higher, of which only about 50 products meet national 5-star OCOP standards. These are products with high quality standards and have met the conditions for export to other countries.

" Although OCOP products have been highly appreciated by Vietnamese consumers and have stable domestic consumption, in order to export to the world market in general and the European and American markets in particular, OCOP enterprises will need to make efforts to improve product quality and value to meet the strict requirements of the international market ," said Ms. Cao Phuong Lan.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has implemented many measures to promote trade between Vietnamese enterprises and distribution systems around the world. Photo: Thai Manh

In order to support Vietnamese enterprises in general and enterprises producing OCOP products in particular in recent times, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has strongly implemented a series of measures to promote trade connections between Vietnamese enterprises and distribution systems around the world, in which many OCOP products have successfully penetrated and gained a foothold in a series of large distribution systems such as Mega Market, BigC, Aeon, Amazon, Lotte, Carefour, LuLu, Decathon or Walmart...

In recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has also closely coordinated with local Departments of Industry and Trade, Vietnamese trade offices abroad and major distributors to successfully organize many Vietnamese goods weeks in countries such as Thailand, France, Japan, Korea, etc. These events not only help promote high-quality products but also introduce to local people the unique cultural and tourism features of Vietnam. The products introduced at the weeks are typical products with outstanding quality of provinces, regions and areas of Vietnam, such as Chinese sausage, grilled spring rolls, rice paper, fish sauce, rice, dried shrimp, processed fruits, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, bird's nest, handicrafts: lacquer paintings, decorative products from sedge, rattan, household items... The event of Vietnamese goods week abroad has opened up opportunities for businesses to participate in trade connections with retail distribution systems in the host country, as well as meet directly with entrepreneurs and customers to seek trade and investment cooperation opportunities.

Not only focusing on sending Vietnamese business delegations abroad to survey and learn about the market, and approach potential customers at trade promotion events or fairs and exhibitions, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also directs the Vietnamese trade office system in other countries to connect and bring importers and distributors to Vietnam to find sources of goods.

Ms. Phuong Lan shared: " In the past 2 years, the European - American Market Department has successfully organized a series of events Viet Nam International Sourcing 2023 and 2024. This event has attracted the participation of hundreds of importers, purchasers, distributors from many countries and regions around the world and hundreds of reputable Vietnamese export enterprises. The event was highly appreciated by participating enterprises, supporting connections in a very effective and practical way.

Following the success of the event series, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to organize the event Viet Nam International Sourcing 2025 in September 2025, expecting to welcome about 400 foreign buyers, importers, distributors and 500 Vietnamese enterprises to participate in the event .

Source: https://congthuong.vn/no-luc-dua-san-pham-ocop-ra-thi-truong-quoc-te-356132.html