From September 13th to 15th, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Ho Chi Minh City is organizing a series of events: “Connecting international sellers 2023 – Vietnam International Sourcing Expo 2023”.

According to the Department of Industry and Commerce, as part of the collaboration with Walmart to prepare for the aforementioned series of events, the “big man” in US retail said it would focus on buying products in six main categories.

The six areas in which Walmart is looking to partner through this series of events include: Apparel & Accessories, Footwear, Apparel & Accessories, Home Electronics, Furniture, Grocery & Consumer Goods.

It is known that the Walmart delegation will be led by Mr. Avineesh Gupta, Executive Vice President in charge of Textile and FMCG Supply, to attend the Vietnam International Sourcing 2023 series of events.

At a recent meeting with Industry and Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien, Sarah Thorn, Senior Director, Global Government Relations at Walmart Retail Group, highlighted that Vietnam is currently among the top five countries exporting goods to the Walmart system, with key products including textiles, home appliances, electronics and processed foods.

Vietnam has gradually become a manufacturing and supply center for Walmart’s distribution system, with export sales exceeding US$2 billion in 2022.

She called on the Ministry of Industry and Trade to support the Walmart Group’s process to expand and strengthen supply chain stability in Vietnam, especially amid the increasing risk of supply chain disruption due to the pandemic and global trade and geopolitical conflicts.

Walmart has 30 search and shopping centers in 17 different countries. These offices develop their own strategies for each market region, manage relationships with more than 2,400 major suppliers and more than 4,000 factories, and ship more than 500,000 containers of goods each year to supply Walmart’s distribution system worldwide.

Although Walmart has not officially invested in the construction and development of distribution centers and supermarkets in Vietnam, since 2013 Walmart has officially opened a representative office in Vietnam with the aim of finding suppliers and establishing and organizing production activities for products and services to be supplied to Walmart’s system in the future.

So far, Walmart Vietnam employs more than 300 people who are responsible for finding sources of goods and building a supplier system. In the coming years, Walmart wants to shop as much as possible in Vietnam.

Goods are exported from Vietnam and brought to distribution centers, Walmart’s supermarket system worldwide, with the main market including Asian countries such as China, India, North American countries, etc.

Due to the trade conflict situation and the trend of relocation and diversification of the global supply chain, Vietnam is currently expected to become an important link in the global value chain of Walmart Group.

The range of goods sought by Walmart is very diverse and rich, most of which are suitable for Vietnam’s supply and production capacity. The focus is mainly on food, electronic and entertainment products, toys, decorative and seasonal products, plastic products, furniture, automotive products, textiles, sports products, stationery…

Group of packaged food and fresh farm products such as coffee, tea, bananas, durian…

The potential is great, but in order to join Walmart’s multi-billion dollar value chain in the international market, Vietnamese companies need to pay special attention to three key issues, recommends Mr. Avineesh Gupta. That means developing a strategy with long-term goals; have supply chain and logistics solutions; Improving product design and development capabilities.

In addition, the Walmart representative added that the most important factors when evaluating suppliers in Vietnam are capacity, ability to deliver, financial stability, sustainable development and compliance with environmental commitments.