The RoK firms were interested in importing spices, packed products made of rice, frozen seafood, dried fruits, coffee, chocolate, cashew, peppercorn, dried meat, fresh fruits, and other processed food products, from Vietnam.

Currently, the RoK is among important strategic partners of Vietnam and the country’s leading investor.

According to Do Kim Lang, Vice Director of the Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, thanks to the Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement, from December 2015, the RoK has become the third biggest trade partner of Vietnam after China and the US.

In 2017, two-way trade reached 61.5 billion USD, up 41 percent year on year, including Vietnam’s exports of 14.8 billion USD, a rise of 30 percent over 2016.

Popular Vietnamese products in the RoK included aquatic products, cassava and cassava products.

In the first two months of 2018, Vietnam earned 2.79 million USD in the RoK market, a surge of 44 percent over the same time last year, noted Lang.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Duong, Director of Minh Duong company said that his firm is selling its products such as potato, sweet potato, cashew and dried products through such big distributors as Big C and Vingroup.

He said that Vietnamese farm products have been accepted in China and the RoK, adding that the firm has exported a large amount of products to the two markets and is seeking to expand the market.

Bui Viet Truong, Third Secretary of Office for Trade Affairs under the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK said that each year, the RoK spends about 33 billion USD to import agro-fishery products.

However, he held that Vietnam should seek solutions to further its presence in the market as currently only five Vietnamese fruits are allowed to be sold in the RoK, including pineapple, coconut, dragon fruit, mango, and banana.

In the coming time, Coupang, the leading online shopping company of the RoK, will give a space in its website to introduce Vietnamese foodstuff. It aims to sell about 1,800 products of Vietnam via its website in 2019.

Experts advised that Vietnamese firms should pay greater attention to design and packaging of their products, while updating quarantine regulations in the market.