rice cake, traditional jams, sugar-coated fruit and many other
Vietnamese favourites in the lunar New Year festival (Tet) have so far
been shipped to Japan, Europe and the US in service of Overseas
Vietnamese.
The south-based Tran Gia Company,
for example, has exported 30 tonnes of square and cylindrical sticky
rice cakes and phrynium leaves (used in wrapping the cakes) to France
and the US, homes to large Vietnamese communities, as Tet is
approaching.
The Ngoc Lien food company in Ho
Chi Minh City has shipped three containers of Tet specialties,
including pickled Welsh onion and rice paper to make spring roll
wrappings, to the US. The company owner, Pham Thi Ngoc Lien, said
demand for these products on the threshold of Tet was huge.
Exporters said specialty exports have risen between 25 and 30 percent
in the two months before Tet over previous months, while prices
increased by 10 percent year on year.
They said
regular shipments of such Vietnamese Tet specialties are now sent abroad
year round and have become popular in supermarkets in foreign markets,
instead of just during Tet or in Vietnamese markets.
In an effort to promote these products abroad, domestic enterprises
have not only taken part in international food trade fairs but also
built their own websites featuring traditional Vietnamese specialties./.
