HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội Trade Corporation (Hapro) has signed contracts for exporting agricultural products worth about US$2 million at the world’s largest food innovation exhibition SIAL Paris.

The fair, which is taking place in Paris from Tuesday to today, has an exhibition area of nearly 250,000 sq.m, attracting about 6,500 businesses from more than 100 countries around the world. It is also expected to welcome more than 155,000 visitors from more than 190 countries.

Hapro’s booth features traditional exports of Việt Nam such as rice, pepper, cashews, cinnamon, processed food, vermicelli, rice noodles, rice crackers, dried fruits, desicated coconut and spices.

At the exhibition, Hapro welcomed about 100 customers to learn about the opportunities for cooperation. The corporation also signed export contracts for agricultural products including cashew nuts, desiccated coconut, pepper and cinnamon.

Hapro is also actively negotiating with clients to continue signing contracts to export key products such as rice, pepper, cashew nut, cassava starch, processed vegetables as well as dried fruits.

Prior to this, at the World Rice Conference held in Hà Nội from October 10 to 12, Hapro inked three contracts to export rice to Malaysia and the US worth nearly $2.5 million.

After the equitisation in June 2018, Hapro’s business activities have made remarkable changes. The corporation has launched a number of trade promotion activities, sought new markets, and strengthened exports. 

According to Hapro’s chairman Nguyễn Thị Nga, in the coming time, Hapro will focus on improving export turnover and making Hapro brand become the leading international brand in the region.

Besides developing commercial infrastructure in Hà Nội and other provinces or cities across the country to serve retail development, Hapro boosts the export of key agricultural products and foodstuffs of Việt Nam as well as handicraft products to 80 countries and regions in the world.

In the first nine months of 2018, Hapro’s export turnover reached $89 million, equaling 122 per cent over the same period last year. The corporation’s revenue hit over VNĐ3.9 trillion (US$167.24 million), a year-on-year increase of 20 per cent.

Some export items continued to have high growth rates such as cashew nut with $62 million (up 15 per cent) and rice with $12 million (up 22 per cent) over the same period in 2017.

Hapro strives to achieve total revenue of VNĐ9 trillion by 2020, an increase of 45 per cent compared to 2018 with 80 per cent of revenue coming from exports, said Hapro’s general director Vũ Thanh Sơn. — VNS