Spices, fruits and vegetables make up a large share of Vietnamese agri-food exports to EU. The export turnover in 2020 was EUR 855 million, up 8% against 2019. These exports are predicted to continue to grow due to the reduction and/or removal of tariffs under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). However, various challenges prevent Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from accessing the EU market, including complying with food safety and sustainable business 2 standards, lack of market information and industry-specific knowledge of the EVFTA’s benefits, ineffective marketing strategies, and poor linkages with EU buyers.
In such context, Oxfam in Vietnam and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) jointly implement the project "Enhancing the Export Competitiveness of Vietnamese Small and Medium Enterprises in Spice, Fruit and Vegetable Sub-Sectors" (short title: SFV-Export), which is funded by the European Union (EU), during 2022 – 2023. SFV-Export aims to enhance the export competitiveness of Vietnamese SMEs, and increasing industrywide capacity and reputation of Vietnam’s agricultural product through:
- Providing technical assistance to achieve EU-recognized food safety standards (IFS, BRC, etc.) and sustainability practices (Fairtrade).
- Providing SMEs with regularly updated information on the EU market, capacity building on marketing, and support for business matchmaking with European buyers.
- Strengthening industrywide capacity and promotion of Vietnamese agri-products to the EU market.
VCCI is looking for (an) expert(s) to provide training and coaching for enterprises on marketing plan development and implementation. Please refer to the attached TOR [1] for more details.
Proposals should be submitted to [email protected] [2] no later than 9:00 September 4, 2022