The event was attended by the representatives of related ministries and sectors and businesses from the country’s southern provinces and cities and nearly 40 Chinese and suppliers of cassava processing equipment suppliers.

Many participants spoke of Vietnam’s potential for cassava processing and opportunities for trade and investment with Chinese businesses.

Vietnamese businesses and their Chinese partners discussed cassava products as well as investment opportunities in cassava production and processing.

Le Xuan Huong, Director of the Export Support Centre under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that cassava is one of Vietnam’s key agricultural products. The country currently grows more than 500,000 hectares of cassava with an output of more than 8 million tonnes per year.

In 2009, Vietnam earned US$574 million from exporting 3.3 million tonnes of cassava. In the first half of this year, the country exported 1.1 million tonnes, earning of US$307 million.

China is seen as Vietnam’s major cassava export market which accounts for more than 90 percent of the country’s export turnover.