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Brazil-Vietnam trade to hit $2 billion in 2013
As the world’s sixth biggest economy with a population of 195 million, the Brazilian market offers great potential for penetration by Vietnamese products, says the Vietnam Trade Office (VTO) in the South American country.
The market share of imported consumer goods rose from 19.5 percent in 2011 to 21.6 percent in 2012.
The country’s total volume of products surpasses $1 trillion, with imported goods accounting for $225 billion. Its imports have increased by a remarkable 15 percent annually for the past ten years.
The total import value of consumer goods has grown continuously and soared 23 percent last April alone. In addition, Imported cosmetics increased 55 percent, followed by garments (35 percent) and pharmaceuticals (24 percent) compared to the same period last year.
Vietnam’s exports to Brazil still remains very modest at 0.32 percent of the country’s global imports and many supermarkets and wholesalers in remote areas have no access to Vietnamese goods.
At the end of 2012, rising taxes levied by Brazil on hundreds of imported items, including many raw materials for domestic industrial production, had driven the cost of inputs for Brazilian products up, making them more expensive and less competitive both at home and in international markets.
The Brazilian Association of Structural Engineering and Consulting (Acebe) has disagreed with the government’s measures to limit imports of essential goods for production.
The group stressed that imports allow the purchase of cutting-edge technologies and goods for more efficient manufacturing, lower product prices and greater competitiveness for Brazilian exports.
These factors offer good opportunities for Vietnamese products to achieve greater penetration to the Brazilian market and this year’s bilateral trade turnover is estimated to reach $2 billion.
According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, two-way trade reached $422 million in the first quarter of this year, including $207.7 million worth of Vietnamese exports to Brazil, up 41.9 percent, and $214.3 million for imports from the country, down only 1.4 percent from last year’s same period.
Vietnam’s key exports to Brazil include footwear, seafood, machinery, equipment, and computers, as well as electronic parts, telephones, garments, bags, hats, umbrellas, steel products and transport vehicles. From Brazil, it imports steel, cotton, automobile parts, tobacco, wood products, apparel and footwear materials.
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