Visitors at the Việt Nam International Exhibition on Processing, Packaging and Preserving Food and Agricultural Products, which is being held at the SECC until July 27. — VNS Photo Xuân Hương

HCM CITY — The first Việt Nam International Exhibition on Processing, Packaging and Preserving Food and Agricultural Products (Vietnam PFA) 2019 opened in HCM City yesterday, offering opportunities for local and foreign exhibitors to introduce their products and explore business co-operation.

The exhibition has attracted nearly 100 exhibitors, including many local brands such as Vinamilk, TH Milk, Masan, Veam, Tin Dan, Song Hiệp Lọi, Arico, VMS, and Đại Chính Quang.

Products on display at 150 booths included machines for processing meat, seafood, vegetables, rice, tea and coffee, grinding machines and equipment, shelling and sorting machines, dairy product lines and equipment, equipment and lines for packaging, canning, bottling, vacuum packing machine, preserving technology, food and agricultural products, materials used in the processing industry, and laboratory equipment.

An international conference on “Development of the processing and preserving industry for agricultural products in the integration period” will be held as part of the exhibition to discuss solutions to improve the added value of Việt Nam’s agricultural value chain.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Phan Thế Anh of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said: “Việt Nam’s agricultural and food processing market has lots of room for development by both domestic and foreign investors to focus on investing capital and improving competitive capacity.”

With a series of new generation of free trade agreements about to be valid as well as the dynamic development of the economy, Việt Nam’s agricultural and food processing industry has great potential for advanced development.

Nguyễn Quốc Toản, director of the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority, said: “To promote the development of agriculture, and take advantage of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements, one of the urgent and necessary solutions is priority investment in research and development of technology lines, seeds, preserving and cleaning agricultural products, thereby diversifying and improving the quality of exported products in accordance with the international market’s technical standards.”

According to experts, 2019 will be a year with strong flow of capital into the agro-processing sector so that Việt Nam can have strong steps forward, Anh said.

Việt Nam’s agricultural processing industry has enjoyed an annual growth rate of 5-7 per cent, greatly contributing to an increase in agricultural exports.

Earnings from exports of agricultural products reached a record of US$40.02 billion last year. The cashew, coffee, rice, shrimp and seafood industries are among the sectors with modern processing technology on a regional and global scale.

Organised by the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority and C.I.S Vietnam Advertising & Exhibition Fair JSC., the exhibition is being held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) until July 27 and is expected to attract 20,000 visitors. — VNS