Vietnam needs to draw up a strategy to develop a national brand name for food as it is among commodities with great potential and increasing added value. Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai made the suggestion at a conference jointly held by the Trade Promotion Agency, the Centre for Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland in Hanoi on October 27. A programme to build the national brand name for the food sector began in 2014 with an aim to increase prestige in both quality and value and push the growth of the Vietnamese food, Hai highlighted. However, he noted that a number of shortcomings have been seen in brand building and marketing, resulting in low added and export values. At the event, Nguyen Trung Kien, deputy director in charge of business affairs of Nafoods Group, recommended enterprises operating in the agricultural sector combine processing with material production, adding that it will help them increase their productivity. Meanwhile, Julian Lawson Hill, Managing Director of Giraffe Consulting International, underscored that identifying potential customers, trends and demands as well as studying competitors and their logos are what Vietnamese food businesses need to do in the building of their brand names. Enterprises must renovate machines, equipment and technology to reduce material losses during processing and increase food hygiene and safety, he said, emphasising the need for market study expansion, product diversification and completion of distribution channels.-VNA