HANOI: A handshake with a foreign buyer is only the beginning for Vietnamese businesses seeking to expand overseas.
The experience of companies at the recent Vietnamese Week 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand, showed that getting a product into an overseas market requires much more than finding a buyer.
Businesses need to understand local demand, meet quality and packaging requirements, invest in marketing and build reliable distribution channels.
Thailand, with its geographical proximity and strong retail network, is an important and demanding market for Vietnamese goods. But for many businesses, the experience there is also helping them prepare for markets further afield.
Paul Le, vice-president of VN Trade Promotion at Central Retail in Vietnam, said Vietnamese businesses had changed significantly in recent years.
They were no longer sending mainly raw materials to overseas markets but were increasingly developing finished products with better packaging, branding and marketing.
He said Central Retail had also helped Vietnamese products reach markets beyond Thailand, including the Czech Republic and the United States.
“The handshake is only the first step,” Le said. “Businesses need to take responsibility for promoting their own products and making them visible in the target market.
“A product placed among thousands of others in a supermarket cannot attract consumers without proper marketing.”
Businesses also need to understand prices, consumer preferences and even the local festival calendar to plan when and how products should be introduced, he said.
For Vietnamese localities, one of the lessons learnt from the Thai market is that having a good local product does not automatically mean it can be sold overseas.
According to Nguyen Thanh Phong, vice-chairman of the People’s Committee of An Giang Province, the province has many strong agricultural products, but most have so far served only the domestic market.
Its participation in international supply chains remained limited, particularly through major retail groups.
The province plans to work more closely with foreign retailers such as Central Retail to help farmers, cooperatives and businesses develop products that meet domestic and international standards, with sufficient production scale and a sales plan.
“The question is not what we have, but what the market needs,” Phong said.
The same approach is being taken by Da Nang. The city brought products, including Ngoc Linh ginseng, coffee and instant Mi Quang noodles to Thailand, but carefully selected what to showcase because Thai buyers have strict requirements.
The city has introduced support policies for packaging and trade promotion, with the aim of helping businesses improve their products and access to both domestic and overseas markets.
Phong said An Giang also wanted to learn from other Vietnamese localities whose products had already entered foreign supermarket chains.
He cited Phu Quoc fish sauce as an example, noting that having a well-known product would not be enough if businesses do not know how to meet the requirements of a modern retail system.
The experience highlights a broader challenge for Vietnamese businesses: moving from selling what they produce to producing what overseas consumers want.
The shift was visible in the products taken to Thailand.
According to Central Retail, Vietnamese companies made significant improvements in packaging, while some products moved from basic agricultural materials to finished goods with clear branding and a more attractive presentation.
That change was important as consumers and importers increasingly demand higher standards of food safety, traceability, packaging and environmental protection.
Vo Hong Anh, deputy director of the Industry and Trade Ministry’s Department of Foreign Market Development and Multilateral Trade, said Thai companies could also become partners for Vietnamese businesses in processing, logistics, packaging and distribution.
Such cooperation could help Vietnamese companies add value to their products and meet stricter requirements in Thailand and other international markets, she said.
Thailand is a key export market for Vietnam. Bilateral trade reached a record US$22.1bil in 2025, and the target is US$25bil this year.
Thailand is Vietnam’s largest trading partner in Asean, while Vietnam is Thailand’s second-largest trading partner in the bloc.
Thailand’s proximity also gives it an advantage over distant markets such as Europe and the United States, where longer transport times and higher logistics costs can make market access more difficult. — Viet Nam News/ANN
