Understanding the regulations to stand firm in the export market

Businesses need to understand market regulations to be able to export their products.Illustration: NT

Confusing with new regulations

According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, by the end of April 2024, the country had more than 13,000 products (OCOP). One product per commune, of which nearly 74% of products achieved three stars, nearly 25% of products achieved four stars, 0.3% of products achieved five stars and the rest were products with five-star potential.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan assessed that many OCOP products have been innovated and created to improve quality, access export markets, targeting even demanding markets with high value. Rural areas have been forming many OCOP tourism areas along with developing many types of products that contribute to the development of local tourism such as cuisine, medical treatment, beauty, consumer goods, souvenirs, etc. OCOP products have also initially aroused the potential and strengths of local products, raw material areas and labor, especially rural tourism services.

In fact, after the product is certified as OCOP, the product output is much better because it is more popular with consumers. Along with that, to ensure benefits, commercial organizations also prioritize ordering products from OCOP entities. Thanks to that, OCOP products have increasingly greater influence, have good consumption, so they are ordered by many commercial enterprises and large supermarkets to put into a stable distribution system.

It is notable that many high-quality OCOP products have been exported to foreign markets such as Tai Hoan vermicelli (Bac Kan), Bich Thao coffee (Son La), Palmania palm sugar (An Giang), ST24 rice (Soc Trang), Thien Vuong specialty rice (An Giang), Ban Lien organic tea (Lao Cai), Viet Cuong vermicelli (Thai Nguyen), Le Gia shrimp paste (Thanh Hoa), Ladoactiso cao ong (Lam Dong), Darmark roasted coffee (Kon Tum), NADISALT salt (Nam Dinh) ... have been exported to markets such as the US, Japan, France, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, China, Taiwan (China), Korea ...

However, according to the assessment of the representative of the Central Office for New Rural Area Coordination, there are still enterprises that own very good products but do not know how to export. Enterprises and cooperatives are confused by new regulations both domestically and internationally. If businesses do not have a firm grasp of market regulations, it will be difficult to integrate and export products. This requires the efforts of OCOP entities, localities, state management agencies, industry associations, businesses and cooperatives.

Establishing a self-inspection process during production and business

Not only OCOP products, many other Vietnamese industries are facing the reality of having difficulty "entering" the export market or having a decrease in orders because they do not fully understand market regulations and have not taken full advantage of the opportunities from signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).

However, according to Mr. Le Thanh Hoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in order to be exported, Vietnamese products must be suitable for different market segments, meeting many regulations on food safety, plant and animal quarantine, etc. In particular, technical issues are also a major barrier for export enterprises. If they have a good grasp of market regulations as well as import and export procedures, it will facilitate export enterprises. Because in fact, Vietnam's production capacity is relatively good, especially rice, pepper, coffee, cashew nuts, rubber, etc.

“In many lawsuits, businesses are at a disadvantage due to the lack of information on origin and statistics, especially in the agricultural sector. Therefore, businesses need to pay attention to the issue of monitoring input materials, recording in books all raw material areas purchased for processing to prove in case of needing to check or trace back the batch of goods related to food hygiene and safety inspection. Therefore, businesses are recommended to establish a self-inspection process during the production and trading of food as well as comply with regulations and requirements of the domestic and import markets,” Mr. Le Thanh Hoa emphasized.

According to Ms. Truong Thuy Linh, Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Defense (Ministry of Industry and Trade), businesses need to improve their understanding of the law on trade defense to avoid negative impacts on their export goods. On the other hand, domestic production and consumption enterprises can use trade defense measures as a tool to protect the domestic market against imported goods with unfair trade practices. Enterprises need to pay more attention to closely cooperating with state management agencies and investigation agencies to avoid being considered uncooperative enterprises. Along with that, it is necessary to strengthen synchronous and in-depth training to improve the awareness and skills of export enterprises, helping enterprises achieve more positive results in trade defense cases.