Potential and opportunities to increase exports to the Lebanese market

Although it is during Ramadan, the trade promotion conference still attracted the participation of many Lebanese companies in the fields of supermarkets, seafood, clothing, footwear, medicine, construction steel, shipping, and software services, reflecting the diversified cooperation of Lebanese companies., The interest and need to find Vietnamese sources of goods.

As a bridge to promote cooperation between enterprises of the two countries, Nguyen Vi Hung, director of the Trade Bureau, introduced at the seminar some potential trade cooperation areas and necessary support for Lebanese enterprises, such as verification of enterprise information, information on Vietnam's import and export and investment policies, information on international fairs and exhibitions held by Vietnam every year, and a list of reputable export enterprises.

During the discussion, Lebanese import enterprises raised difficulties in cooperation, such as the low English proficiency of some Vietnamese export enterprises, the lack of online inquiry information, and the desire to support enterprises to participate in Vietnamese trade fairs to speed up visa procedures. Some Lebanese enterprises in the IT and software services sector said there was a lack of information to assess the strength of Vietnamese IT enterprises and advice was needed on the procedures for setting up a company in Vietnam.

The Trade Bureau discussed and answered relevant questions and provided additional information on the Vietnamese association so that Lebanese enterprises could study the possibility of cooperation with the association's member enterprises.

Previously, the Trade Office had investigated and cooperated with the Hoz Mall supermarket chain in the Kura district of the northern Lebanese province. The chairman of the supermarket, Wasim El Hoz, said that the supermarket has sold a variety of Vietnamese products, such as frozen basa fish slices, shrimp dumplings, canned tuna, etc., and he plans to import more new products from Vietnam and introduce them to Lebanese consumers.

During a working meeting with pharmaceutical company UBSA Pharma Industries in Tripoli, General Manager Zakaria Elsaid and CEO Omar Elsaid also expressed their desire to cooperate with Vietnamese pharmaceutical companies and import vitamins and minerals for pharmaceutical production.

Lebanon is a market with great potential in the Middle East-Africa region and is a great opportunity for Vietnamese exporters. According to Lebanese customs data, the total import and export volume between Vietnam and Lebanon will reach 97 million billion US dollars in 2024, an increase of 9.3 percent compared with 2023 (of which Vietnam's exports account for almost all, accounting for 99.4 percent of the total turnover).