AsemconnectVietnam - Canadian minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay has led a delegation representing agricultural firms to Vietnam to promote their products with a focus on beef in this market with more than 90 million people.

Heinz Reimer, vice chair of the organisation Canadian Beef, told a Canadian beef promotion event in Hanoi on February 28 that the North American country’s annual beef shipments to Vietnam over the past years had reached 350 tonnes. The volume is still much lower than the potential of the Vietnamese market where there are 90 million consumers and the middle class is growing fast.

Reimer said the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact had not progressed as expected, impacting Canada’s prospect of selling beef to this Asean market. Therefore, business associations in Canada including Canada Beef have lobbied the Canadian government to launch negotiations with Vietnam over a free trade agreement in order to boost exports of quality farm produce to this market.

MacAulay said his business mission would find ways to strengthen trade with and highlighting Canada’s contribution to Vietnam’s effort to modernise the agricultural sector.

In addition to beef, Canadian firms introduced technology used to produce high-quality pork, oil seeds and cereals used to make oil products for animal feed, beef and seafood, among others.

At a meeting with minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong in Hanoi on Monday, MacAulay said Canada would fund a safe growth project worth C$15 million. It will follow a project to build and control the quality of farm produce and food implemented in 2008-2014.

Cuong said products of Canada and Vietnam were supplementary and that Vietnam encouraged the importation of high-quality breeder pigs. Vietnam has licensed lobster imports from Canada for processing products for domestic consumption and export since 2014. Vietnam is one of Canada’s key trading partners in Asean. In 2016, Vietnam exported products worth $2.65 billion and spent $389.9 million on imports from the North American market. Canada saw strong increases in exports of lobster, fish, seafood, soy beans and wheat to Vietnam last year.

Source: Intellasia.net