Pretoria (VNA) – South Africais a promising market for Vietnamese rice exporters as it consumes about 850,000tonnes of rice a year, said an official from Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry andTrade (MoIT).

South Africa’s demand for rice is expectedto rise in the context that its natural conditions are unfavorable for ricefarming while the number of tourists and labourers from Asia, where rice is themain staple, coming to the country is on the rise, Tran Quoc Toan, deputy headof the MoIT’s Import and Export Department said.

Toan led a delegation to seek export markets for Vietnamese rice in SouthAfrica from December 10-11. The trip is also part of trade promotion activitiesaiming to realise the target of improving trade between the two countries frompresent 1 billion USD to 1.5 billion USD in 2020 set by South African PresidentCyril Ramaphosa during his visit to Vietnam in 2016.

At a working session with the South African Department of Trade and Industry(DTI) on December 10, Toan said as the locomotive economy in Africa, SouthAfrica serves as a gateway for Vietnamese rice exporters to access the wider Africanmarket.

He, therefore, suggested Vietnamesebusinesses to expand relations with international partners operating in SouthAfrica.

At the meeting, the official briefed SouthAfrican participants on regulations regarding tax and customs procedures forrice exported to their country and rice distribution channels in the market.

Madileke Ramushu, DTI Director of AsiaBilateral Relations, said South Africa always encourages and stands ready tocreate the best possible conditions for Vietnamese businesses to increase riceexports to the country.

It will help them to enter other markets in the continent, especially those inthe South African Development Community with a total population of 650 million,he said.

On this occasion, Madileke called onVietnamese firms to help their South African partners to raise processed contentsof their products delivered to Vietnam in order to improve their values.

He also suggested Vietnamese enterprisesinvest in the processing sector in South Africa, thus promoting their productsin Africa.

While in South Africa, the Vietnamese delegationand the Vietnamese Embassy in the country joined hands with the DTI’s office inJohannesburg city to organise a workshop on rice export promotion in Vietnam.-VNA