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The Vietnamese food processing industry grew by 7.4 percent in 2024 to $79.3 billion and food ingredient demand is expected to remain strong.

The ongoing transformation of Saudi Arabia bodes well for the retail food sector. In 2023, the Saudi food retail market was estimated at more than $51 billion and projected to increase by more than 5 percent annually in the coming years due to the continued urbanization, growing population, changing shopping habits, expansion of physical store locations , and increasing popularity of online platforms.

Vietnam’s food retail market consisted of over 665,000 outlets generating sale revenue of $55 billion in 2023, up four percent compared to 2022. Although the global economic downturn has slowed growth, key retailers remain optimistic about the potential of Vietnam's retail market.

Vietnam offers abundant opportunities for exporting consumer-oriented products, despite the challenges of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with high inflation. The Vietnamese economy is poised for significant expansion in the coming decades. With a burgeoning population and a growing middle class, Vietnamese consumers are becoming more discerning about the origin and composition of their food.

The 2023 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook provides a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports to the world during the 2023 calendar year.

Vietnam’s food processing industry comprises some 11,000 companies, valued at $73.8 billion in 2023. Growth in 2023 was 6.1%, down from a blistering 8.8% in 2021 and 2022.

Vietnam's total retail sales in 2022 rose 13 percent year-on-year to $192 billion driven by a rebound in domestic consumption along with record-high gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 8.02 percent, according to Vietnam’s General Statistical Office.

U.S. exports of consumer-oriented food products to Saudi Arabia increased 23 percent over 2021 to a record $656 million mainly due to the continued expansion in online shopping platforms.

The 2022 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook provides a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports to the world during the 2022 calendar year.

Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Arab world and home to a growing food manufacturing and processing sector. Total investments in the sector are projected to reach $70 billion in 2030, an increase of approximately 59% over total investments in 2016.

Vietnam’s food processing and manufacturing sector grew by 8.8 percent in 2022 versus 2021, while food retail revenue increased by 10 percent.

Despite COVID-19's widespread impacts on Vietnam for most of 2021, total retail sales were estimated at approximately $172 billion, marginally up 0.2 percent over 2020, according to Vietnam’s General Statistical Office (GSO). The fourth and largest wave of COVID-19 started on April 29, 2021, and rapidly spread across Vietnam, severely affecting all industries, including the retail food sector.