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April 2008

Bringing Missouri Products to Vietnam

Last month, the Missouri Department of Agriculture led a trade mission to Vietnam. It was an exciting opportunity to promote Missouri companies and Missouri products in a rapidly growing country.

Why Vietnam, you ask? You might be surprised to know that it is the fastest growing economy in Asia. Its GDP growth last year was 8.5 percent, and they are on track to have another amazing year this year.

In a meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, he said that Hanoi was the hottest real estate market in the entire world. Eighty-five million people live in Vietnam with over 50 percent of the population is under 35 years old.

The people of Vietnam have a growing income and that is good for U.S. farmers because they have the potential to be a tremendous importer of U.S. agriculture products. Their agriculture imports exceeded $624 million in agriculture, fish and forest products. The U.S. exported $12.46 million in soybeans – an increase of over 1486 percent over 2006. The same is true for feed ingredients with a $4.41 million increase in 2006.

While visiting we had the opportunity to meet with the Vice Minister at the Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development. He told us of the country’s plans to significantly grow their livestock and aquaculture industries in the next few years. They currently don’t have the capacity in their feed industry to keep up with this rapid growth.

It was good timing for the companies that were with us to promote their products including commercial equipment for feed mills and feed additives. These companies included Novus International, Wenger Manufacturing, Inc., Tapco and the Missouri Soybean Association. These companies met with 80 feed industry leaders in Vietnam introducing them to their products and fielded questions from participants. We toured five feed mills of all sizes and saw their need for increased capacity.

In general, it is just an exciting time to be in Vietnam. It was a great chance to see the growth and the opportunity for U.S. agriculture and introduce the leaders of that country to Missouri companies and products.

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