Indian businesses interested in Vietnam's food and beverage market

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Beverage products attracted the attention of Indian businesses. Photo: Nguyen Hien

According to Indian businesses, Vietnam is a large country in the manufacturing, food processing and agricultural sector and one of the world's largest exporters of rice, coffee, pepper and cashew nuts. However, Vietnam is also a major food importer and consumer. Agricultural products make up a significant portion of the bilateral trade between the two countries. In particular, recent Free Trade Agreements signed by Vietnam such as the CPTPP and EVFTA will improve market access for processed food and beverage products of Vietnam. This is also motivation for Indian businesses to seek business opportunities in Vietnam.

INCHAM President, Mr. Ramesh Anand, said that with a population of over 95 million people and increasing consumer demand, Vietnam is turning into a large F&B market. In addition, the Government of Vietnam has adopted many policies to develop the F&B industry by improving the business environment for producers, public administration reforms and providing soft loans and projects.

In addition, the large and diverse demands of people in big cities for food products and drinks are also creating an attraction for the F&B industry, attracting domestic and foreign investors.

“With these advantages, the investment of Indian enterprises into Vietnam is expected to increase significantly,” Mr. Ramesh Anand said.

According to statistics, India's FDI into Vietnam has increased significantly for many years. Mr. K. Srikar Reddy, Consulate General of India in Ho Chi Minh City said, to June 20, 2019, there were 254 projects by Indian enterprises investing in Vietnam with a total investment of about 928 million USD. If including Indian investment projects through third countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore, the figure amounted to about 1.7 billion USD.

India currently ranks 29 out of 129 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. The main investment is in energy, mineral exploration, agricultural product processing, sugar production, coffee and pharmaceuticals.

In Ho Chi Minh City, India currently has 118 projects that have been issued investment licenses with a total investment of more than 73 million USD, focusing mainly on the fields of science and technology, automobiles, motorbike and processing industries, and IT.

Not only limited to the above fields but also in the agricultural sector, Indian enterprises have an interest in investing in Vietnam. Recently, Tata Coffee Limited Group of India has decided to invest in building a modern cold and dry coffee processing factory in Binh Duong with an investment of over 63 million USD.

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India is currently one of 10 biggest trading partners of Vietnam. At the same time, Vietnam is also a top priority partner in India's Eastbound Policy. Vietnam - India bilateral trade in 2018 reached 10.69 billion USD, up 40% over the same period the year before. In particular, exports from Vietnam reached 6.54 billion USD, up 74.2%, imports from India reached 4.15 billion USD, up 7%.