In preparation for promoting lychee exports to the US market, in April 2024, the Bac Giang provincial government worked with the delegation of agricultural and trade counselors of Vietnam in the US and Ms. Amy Nguyen - General Director of Dragonberry Produce Company (a company importing lychees from Bac Giang in the US). 

Encouraging new signals

Dragonberry Produce Company is currently a supplier of agricultural products to the Safeway supermarket chain (with 913 stores), Albertsons (with over 300 stores) and Costco supermarket chain (with 635 supermarkets in the US and Canada), which are the supermarket chains with the largest networks on the West Coast of the US and North America.

Purely Vietnamese business owners  need to proactively contact directly with representatives of major US retailers to increase opportunities to bring Vietnamese goods into their supermarket chains.

Ms. Amy Nguyen recalled that last year, over 40 tons of Bac Giang lychees were imported by sea with the most suitable preservation technology. Therefore, this year, she will actively promote and increase the import output of Bac Giang lychees to bring them into the supermarket network in the US.

Recently, while attending a seminar on promoting exports between Vietnamese localities and American partners organized by the Vietnamese Consulate General in Houston, Texas (USA), Mr. Brad Morris, President of BA Moris Inc. USA (importer of Vietnamese beer products to the US), said that currently, Hanoi Beer products are imported and sold in many states in the US, in large distribution centers or supermarkets in the US such as Total Wine, SPEC, HEB, Hong Kong...

According to Mr. Morris, importing alcoholic beverages into the US requires a special license; storage, wholesale, retail, and usage processes are also strictly managed and monitored by US government agencies. In the last two months of last year, MIB Company itself successfully imported shipments of Hanoi Beer by sea and air to the US to distribute to dozens of partners here.  

Mr. Brad Morris expressed his hope that the Vietnam Trade Office branch in Houston, Texas will continue to introduce more partners, especially introducing and connecting with Asian supermarkets and markets in the area to sell more and more Vietnamese beer products.

In addition, it is possible to mention the traditional Vietnamese soy sauce product with the brand name "black cat" of Nam Duong International Food Company Limited in March 2024, which was officially on supermarket shelves in the US through cooperation with LNS International Joint Stock Company. 

According to Ms. Vu Kim Hanh, President of the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Enterprises, exporting Vietnamese spices to the US market is very potential. Because the market for Vietnamese spices in the US not only has 1.3 million Vietnamese people but also includes the Asian community. Especially now, up to 80% of supermarkets in the US have a separate area for Asian foods.

Or like in January this year, Huu Nghi Food Joint Stock Company officially exported egg tarts directly to the US through cooperation with partner LEE BROS. FOODSERVICE, INC. This is considered a milestone for the company in conquering the most potential and demanding market in the world. These cakes are being sold at over 200 points of sale, which are Asian supermarket chains in the US.

It can be seen that the export of Vietnamese goods to supermarkets in the US as mentioned above is very encouraging and needs to continue to open up the way to continue to "flow" more strongly. Because bringing goods of purely Vietnamese enterprises into the retail channel in the US is not simple, it requires more efforts from Vietnamese enterprises themselves, support from local authorities, trade agencies and partners, and large retailers in the US.

Avoid disadvantages and add cooperation

Mr. Nguyen Duc Trong, Head of New Supplier Development of Walmart Group (USA) in Vietnam, expressed hope that in the coming years the number of "made in Vietnam" products exported directly to Walmart supermarket chain in the US will increase. 

As Mr. Trong worries, there are currently about 500 enterprises in Vietnam that are suppliers of goods to Walmart, but many of them have foreign direct investment (FDI). Meanwhile, the proportion of purely Vietnamese enterprises supplying to Walmart is not high and most of them are secondary suppliers.

“To work directly with Walmart requires Vietnamese businesses to meet the requirements of the US market. These are very high requirements for businesses with Vietnamese owners. And to meet these requirements, according to our surveys in Vietnam in recent years, we found that there are difficulties for businesses in accessing them,” Mr. Trong said.

According to the head of the department in charge of developing new suppliers, many Vietnamese enterprises really want to become suppliers for Walmart's supermarket chain in the US, but they lack service capabilities. Service here is not just about product quality or delivery service, but also the ability to understand the US market to meet the needs of American consumers.

“Currently, Vietnamese enterprises are lacking the above-mentioned foundations, so they do not have the conditions to work directly with us. However, Walmart always creates conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to work directly with them rather than through intermediary partners,” Mr. Trong added.

According to the head of new supplier development, currently, the number of goods in Walmart's supermarket chain in the US originating from Vietnam is not small, but most of those goods must go through trading companies and large partners to enter the supermarket system. 

In fact, this is a common disadvantage for Vietnamese businesses when bringing goods to American supermarkets, which usually have to go through intermediary partners such as trading companies. This can cause the price of Vietnamese goods to increase when they reach American consumers, making it difficult to raise the level of Vietnamese brands in the US.

Therefore, once we want to open the way for Vietnamese goods to "flow" into American supermarkets, we need more cooperation from large retailers in the US to help Vietnamese businesses push their goods directly more conveniently. Especially through opportunities to work directly with large US retailers, Vietnamese businesses will improve their ability to understand the market, as well as meet the demanding requirements of the US market.

Thuy Linh