As the leading company in the seafood market, Vinh Hoan JSC finds it easy to penetrate the Chinese market.

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Vinh Hoan’s managers realized that e-commerce is an effective channel for branding and selling products, and that well - off Chinese consumers have confidence in the quality of products advertised in marketplaces.

Therefore, Vinh Hoa decided to join hands with Alibaba’s Tmall Fresh to offer its products to China. Shortly after that, the value of products sold soared to $3 million.

Declining to give figures about the revenue from the Chinese market, Ngo Vi Tam, CEO of Vinh Hoan, said the products exported are mostly frozen fillet catfish and the output is expected to increase by 20-30 percent in 2019.

Many Vietnamese enterprises also try to sell their products to the Chinese market via Alibaba.

Declining to give figures about the revenue from the Chinese market, Ngo Vi Tam, CEO of Vinh Hoan, said the products exported are mostly frozen fillet catfish and the output is expected to increase by 20-30 percent in 2019.

Nguyen Huyen, director of Dong Duong Food, specializing in making spices, said in 2008, she opened an account on Alibaba to seek foreign partners. However, only three years later could the company export the first consignment of products through the online sale channel.

In the case of Quoc Gia Import/Export Company, the fertilizer supplier, at first, the company only distributed products via traditional agents. However, as things were getting more difficult, Vu Viet Thang, CEO of Quoc Gia, decided to develop a marketing network and online sales channel. He contacted Fado marketplace to connect Alibaba.

According to Pham Dat, CEO of Fado, a survey by Alibaba and Fado found that a high number of Vietnam’s businesses opened accounts on Alibaba, but only 2,000 made investments to develop online sales.

Dat thinks the figure is modest compared with the potential of Vietnamese enterprises. The reason lies in the barriers businesses meet when joining cross-border marketplaces.

Alibaba.com is a very large marketplace with the ecosystem of 260 businesses which buy goods from 240 countries and territories all over the world. It is difficult to join Alibaba, but the benefits one can expect are great.

Truong Dinh Hoe, secretary general of VASEP, also said e-commerce is a strongly developing sale channel among the distribution channels in China. Seafood is among the products that consumers buy online.

On Alibaba’s website, fillet catfish is sold at $1,130-1,140 per ton while the minimum amount for each order is 25 tons. Meanwhile, other catfish products are sold there at the prices of $2-3 per kilogram.

Steven Zheng, an e-commerce training specialist from Alibaba.com, noted that because of trade tensions with the US, and tax and non-tariff barriers, importers from the US and Europe have tried to look for suppliers from Vietnam via the platform. This is a golden opportunity for Vietnam’s businesses.

Kim Chi

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