Vietnam - Chile: Further promote agro-products potential

On October 5, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien had a meeting with Chilean Ambassador to Vietnam Mr. Patricio Arturo Becker Marshall to discuss the agro-product import and export situation and propose solutions to promote cooperation between the two countries.

Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien shared that Vietnam and Chile have established a relationship of 50 years, always supporting and helping each other during their long-term commitment, but the agricultural development of the two countries is still not commensurate with both sides’ potential.

Regarding the balance of trade in agriculture - forestry - fishery products, it can be seen that Vietnam mainly has a trade deficit (exports to Chile reached USD 39.7 million, while imports from Chile reached USD 232.9 million). The Deputy Minister hoped that during this term of the Ambassador both sides would cooperate closely to ensure efficiency, remove obstacles and bring agricultural product trades to the full potential.

At the moment Vietnam has not exported animal products to Chile while a total of 126 Chilean enterprises have had animal products exported to Vietnam.

On the other hand, Vietnam has many livestock and aquaculture enterprises that have been building production chains and disease-free areas and wish to export livestock products to Chile.

Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Health Nguyen Van Long hopes that the Ambassador will consult with the competent authorities in Chile to give Vietnamese enterprises guidance so that they would be able to export animal products to Chile. At the same time, Mr. Nguyen Van Long also proposed Chile cooperate and support Vietnam in veterinary issues on account of its strength in epidemiological and disease response capability.

Mr. Tran Hieu Minh, Deputy Director of the Department of Science, Technology and International Cooperation (Administration of Forestry) said that Vietnam has a solid position in the region and the world regarding forest products’ processing and exportation, and Chile in particular is an important market, ranking second in the South America region in terms of importation of Vietnam’s wood.

As fellow members of APEC and CITES, Mr. Tran Hieu Minh suggested closer cooperation between both sides to promote processing, export, trade as well as information sharing concerning policies and regulations on legal timber and forest products.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, shared that at the moment the Department of Plant Protection is requesting the Chilean party to review the dossier on pomelo export, and vice versa, the Vietnamese party is also considering the dossier on the importations of kiwi fruits from Chile into Vietnam, hoping that the Ambassador will inform relevant Chilean agencies so that both sides can quickly complete the dossier for these two fruits, and at the same time initiate further cooperation with Chile to transfer effective techniques on fruit export management.

In particular, referring to the issue of seafood export, Mr. Ngo Hong Phong, Deputy Director of the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD), said that Vietnamese seafood in the near future needs to be further promoted in Chile through the Ambassador's support.

The NAFIQAD Deputy Director hopes to establish close relations with Chilean authorities in order to proceed to negotiate and sign a mutual recognition agreement to avoid double-inspection, which will contribute to the reduction of trade balance deviation as the Deputy Minister had mentioned.

Mr. Nguyen Van Trong, Deputy Director of the Department of Livestock Production, also hoped that with the advantages of the two countries, the two countries’ businesses could coordinate trade to expand the fishery market in particular and facilitate the development of both parties.

Having listened to the opinions of Vietnam’s representatives, Ambassador Patricio Arturo Becker Marshall shared that the two countries have had precedents in trade exchange and economic cooperation, but there is still a lot of room to develop the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

The Ambassador hopes to gain opportunities for closer cooperation with Vietnamese leadership agencies, promote trade in seafood in particular and agricultural products in general, progress to bilateral agreements, sign agreements and cooperation documents between the two sides' departments to simplify the inspection process, facilitate the trade of goods, thereby improving the trade balance.