Cashew nut shells, considered ‘rubbish’ by many people, turn out to be a material which may create a market worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. 

VietNamNet Bridge - The Vietnam Seafood Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) believes that Vietnam is capable of becoming an important global seafood production base.

Vietnam’s export growth rate was modest at 5.7 percent in the first half of 2016, the lowest in the last five years. This has raised concerns that the 6.7 percent GDP growth rate may be unattainable, while state budget revenue will shrink.

Footwear is a big industry of Vietnam, considered a ‘foreign currency earner’ thanks to high exports every year.  

Seven months after the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was officially established, the Vietnamese market is flooded with Thai and Malaysian goods. But Vietnamese goods are still largely absent from the ASEAN market.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese textile & garment companies have had to scale down production, while others are facing closure.

VietNamNet Bridge - The majority of Vietnamese footwear companies make products for export and do not focus on the domestic market, where consumers often prefer foreign-made products.

VietNamNet Bridge - In 2015, Vietnam exported $6.9 billion worth of wooden furniture products, an increase of 10.7 percent over 2014, turning Vietnam into the fourth biggest wooden furniture exporter in the world after China, Germany and Italia.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese rice exporters have been told to try to penetrate non-China markets to make bigger profits. However, they have not made efforts to attack markets in France and the US.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese businesses are considering growing rice in Cambodia for export to the EU, since the country enjoys preferential policy in exporting farm produce to the market.

VietNamNet Bridge - Relying on some certain trade partners is risky, especially China, which can be unpredictable.

VietNamNet Bridge - Wooden furniture manufacturers enjoy preferences thanks to a zero percent import tariff applied by many big export markets. However, very few enterprises can exploit the advantages.

The increasingly heavy pressure from both the overseas and domestic markets has forced many cement manufacturers to think of Merger & Acquisition (M&A) as a solution for their problems.

VietNamNet Bridge - The ‘VND1 trillion club’, comprising listed enterprises with the profit of VND1 trillion and more, have admitted many new faces from the private economic sector.

The government, when planning the nation’s budget for 2016, has estimated that crude oil will make up 10 percent of the budget revenue for the year, which means that Vietnam still plans to increase the crude oil output.

VietNamNet Bridge - Modern technology which allows processing of cashew nuts at low costs is one of the reasons that Vietnam has become the Number 1 cashew nut exporter in the world.

VietNamNet Bridge - The rapid increase in exports to one market may force Vietnam to face anti-dumping lawsuits, while large exports to China will bring risks as this is an unsafe market.

The government has approved the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) plan to amend Decree 36/2014/ND-CP to resolve difficulties of management offices, enterprises and farmers in implementing the decree over the past one year.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam is striving to export its products directly to all large distribution chains in Europe, North America, South East Asia and North East Asia under free trade agreements it has signed.

VietNamNet Bridge - The sale of 450,000 tons of rice to the Philippines under a government-to-government contract is expected to increase Vietnam’s rice price in domestic and world markets.