Vietnamese farm products make inroads into the Persian Gulf region

Lulu is a leading retailer that boasts more than 250 supermarkets throughout the Persian Gulf region. Vietnamese farm products like dragon fruits or guavas are sold almost all year round at its supermarkets.

Ma Salim, managing director of Lulu International, said the group considers Vietnam as one of the main suppliers of agricultural products globally.

According to the executive, almost no Vietnamese agricultural products were previously imported into this market. But Vietnamese lemon is now one of the most popular products locally.

“We used to import dragon fruits from other countries, but now there are only Vietnamese dragon fruits, and the quality is second to none,” said Salim.

Meanwhile, Barakat is a famous brand of fruit and fruit-processed products from the United Arab Emirates. It has also imported agricultural products from Vietnam as an important supplier.

Arshad Saiyed, vice president of Bakarat, said the firm imports about 10 - 20 types of agricultural products from Vietnam, mostly dragon fruits, seedless watermelons, seedless limes or coconuts.

“Agricultural products from Vietnam currently account for 40% of the total amount of fruit Bakarat imports from East Asia,” said Saiyed.

Besides fruits, Vietnamese rice is also receiving more and more attention from Gulf importers after some traditional rice suppliers in the Gulf region recently limited exports due to crop failure.

“This is the right time for Vietnamese rice to make inroads into markets that have not imported the staple,” Neeraj Nihalani, managing director at Golden Rise Trading LLC.

Expert say when some Vietnamese agricultural products have entered some markets in the Persian Gulf region, they are likely to reach out further to fully tap into the Arab world of about 450 million consumers there.