The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap is eyeing the potential market in Japan, where there is demand for agricultural products.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Truong Ngoc Han said during a recent market survey tour to Japan that his province has various products that can sell in the Japanese market, even in large quantity, like food and fruits.

Dong Thap province currently accounts for about 50-70 percent of Viet Nam’s total rice exports to Japan over the last few year.

The province will continue to boost this momentum by carrying out a high-quality paddy cultivation project in an area of some 120,000 hectares, he revealed.

Han said surveys on some markets in Tokyo and its suburbs made him believe that a number of the province’s specialty fruits such as Lai Vung mandarin, sweet mango and pumpkin as well as aquatic products like prawn and Basa catfish are able to enter the Japanese market.

Dong Thap province has designated an area of 10,000 hectares to raise prawns for export to Japan, he said.

The official, however, acknowledged that the most pressing issue for Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products to enter the Japanese market is to meet the host country’s food hygiene standards.

To this effect, he said his province has coordinated with the ASEAN-Japan Centre and Viet Nam’s trade mission in Tokyo to invite Japanese businesses to conduct market surveys in Dong Thap.

Source: VNA