The US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and the US Department of Agriculture launched United Tastes, a marketing initiative to promote American agricultural products in Vietnam on March 18.

Marie C. Damour, US Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City and chef Tristan Ngo prepare a salad from American ingredients at the ceremony. Photo: VNA

Marie C. Damour, US Consul General  in Ho Chi Minh City, said the reason she chose Vietnam to launch the program is because the country has a young population willing to try new products, along with the growing middle class and the economy.

"Vietnamese people has a very delicate taste and pays a lot of attention to the quality, safeness and nutritional value,” Damour emphasized. “United Tastes will inform consumers about American products currently available in the Vietnamese market, promotions of the American agricultural trade association, and the opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to trade and cooperate [with their US peers].”

The US is one of Vietnam’s leading trade partners with two-way trade value growing continuously over the years, especially in the agricultural sector. Farm trade is an important part of the Vietnam-US relationship with remarkable growth over the past 25 years, Damour said, expressing her optimism about both countries farm trade perspective. 

“Right now, we already have about US$8 billion in bilateral [farm] trade turnover and half of that comes from the US into Vietnam and the rest goes from Vietnam into US," she said. "So it really shows the strength of the relationship and I anticipate that it will continue to grow particularly as the Vietnamese consumers want to try new products.”