Denmark and Sweden leads the gang as Vietnam forecast export earnings of USD 320 million to northern Europe this year, a year-on-year increase by 15 percent, announced Vietnamese Ambassador to Sweden Nguyen Ngoc Truong at the 24th annual meeting of the foreign ministry in Ho Chi Minh City 25 August, reports VNA.
The main export items are food, handicrafts, footwear and handbags, said the Ambassador who added that Sweden and Denmark alone have become major importers of Vietnamese goods with a combined spending this year estimated at USD 100 million.
Northern Europeans are bigger spenders than their continental neighbours. But it is also a challenge to take shares there as Vietnamese producers find it difficult to penetrate a market where the requirements for product quality and packaging design are high.
Still Vietnam will show a USD 119 million surplus in trade with northern Europe as expected imports from that region will reach USD 201 million during 2003.
