One reason for the growing purchase of Vietnamese products is that they are sold at lower prices than those made in France, such as household appliances, garments, footwear, mobile phones, and engineering tools.

French Customs statistics show a sharp increase in the value of machinery and electronic equipment imported from Vietnam, from just US$433.6 million in 2011 to US$949.2 million in 2012.

For instance, household appliances, mostly made from wood and timber, rose 14.6% from US$116.2 million in 2011 to more than US$133.2 million in 2012.

Vietnam’s export earnings from France last year hit a record high of US$2.7 billion, up 39.6% or (US$1.9 billion) from the 2011 level. They were maintained at an annual growth rate of 35-37% in the previous year up to 2010.

The Vietnam Trade Office in France insists that domestic enterprises should strike up partnerships based on mutual trust, French businesses through international trade fairs, and trade promotion workshops.

Trade Counselor to France Nguyen Canh Cuong warns that there is concern in some developed countries about free webmail services. If Vietnamese exporters rely on companies like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! to contact their French partners, they may risk being subject to automatic spam filtering.

Cuong notes that as the European Union’s (EU) timber import origin regulations took effect as of Mach 1, they would rather present the legal certificates of their product origin at the customs offices of EU member countries before delivering their goods overseas.

According to Cuong, the Vietnamese community in France is also a potential customer base for home- made goods like noodles, seafood, fish sauce, clothes, footwear, and wood furniture which are sold at reasonable prices.

Cuong says the French CASINO retail chain is a distributor of Vietnamese products from the major Vietnamese retailer Big C, and domestic businesses could contact Big C as an intermediary if they wish to export their products to France.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry‘s latest report says Vietnamese exports to France increased by 1.6% to US$769 million over the first five months of 2013.

VOV