Vietnam signs deal with Thai wholesaler to promote Vietnamese goods abroad

The country’s Ministry of Industry and Trade signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with MM Mega Market Vietnam Co Ltd on Thursday (August 8).
According to the MoU, the ministry will help MM Mega Market seek partnerships with reputed Vietnamese processors and manufacturers, to push the sales of Vietnamese goods to Thai-owned retail chains.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said the purpose of the pact was to help promote consumption of Vietnamese goods in MM Mega Market's distribution system in the domestic market as well as exports via international distribution networks and other companies of the TCC Group – the parent company of MM Mega Market Vietnam.
The two sides will also work closely in organising Vietnamese goods weeks, seminars and training courses to promote Vietnamese products at TCC Group’s foreign distribution channels.
The firm will work with Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Industry and Trade to hold a Vietnamese goods week in Thailand this October.
At the same time, they will help Vietnamese businesses and producers improve their product quality to the standards and requirements of the distributors.
The agreement follows the success of cooperation between the ministry and other major foreign retailers in Vietnam, such as Aeon from Japan, Central Group from Thailand and Lotte from South Korea, in supporting Vietnamese manufacturers to develop the domestic market and enter foreign ones.
The cooperation with foreign retailers is one of the activities of the Domestic Market Development Project in the period 2014-20 and the project of promoting Vietnamese enterprises to join direct foreign distribution networks by 2020.
After three years of implementing the project to promote Vietnamese enterprises to join direct foreign distribution networks, according to the ministry’s Department of Domestic Market, the Central Group has annually exported Vietnamese goods worth US$46 million every year via its Big C supermarket system since 2017. The exports are expected to increase.
Meanwhile, MM Mega Market has established four centres to purchase local agricultural products in Vietnam such as dragon fruit and sweet potatoes for export to Thailand.
MM Mega Market exported Vietnamese agricultural products to Thailand for the first time last year. The products include frozen tra fish, squid, star apple, pink grapefruit and dragon fruit.
Aeon supermarket is exporting US$250 million per year of goods through the Top Value brand. According to Aeon's commitment, the export value of Vietnamese goods via its distribution system will increase to $500 million in 2020 and $1 billion in 2025.
This year, it has doubled export volume to 200 tonnes of Vietnamese farming products per month.
The ministry said the foreign distribution system will help businesses bring Vietnamese goods to four million Vietnamese living and working abroad.