From August 12 to 17, the Trade Office under the Consulate General of Viet Nam in Houston, Texas, organized working sessions with a number of associations and businesses in the southern United States operating in the food and beverage sector.  

Nguyen Manh Quyen, Head of the Trade Office in Houston, and Paul Gor, Senior Director of Community Development at the Asian Chamber of Commerce (ACC) in Houston, co-chaired a B2B roundtable aimed at connecting businesses involved in food and beverage production, processing, import and export.

The event brought together representatives of numerous Asian-owned businesses and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) programme in the Houston area, as well as experts and businesses from the food and beverage sectors in Viet Nam and the US.

Speaking at the event, Nguyen Manh Quyen, Head of the Trade Office in Houston, said that organizing direct engagement activities with local associations and business communities is one of the ways to support Vietnamese enterprises in gaining a better understanding of the market, accessing potential partners and gradually expanding exports to the US.

Through the networks of chambers of commerce, businesses have greater opportunities to connect with importers, distributors, retail chains and potential partners, thereby identifying channels through which their products can enter the market.

Speaking at the roundtable, Tran Dinh Thanh, Chairman of the Hanoi Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (HABECO), said that after more than 130 years of establishment and development, with a long-standing tradition closely associated with Vietnamese culinary culture, HABECO products have been exported to and reached various regions around the world, including some of the largest markets, notably the US.

In particular, with support from the Houston Trade Office, associations, the broader Asian business community, as well as overseas Vietnamese business owners and entrepreneurs, HABECO has built a solid brand presence in the US market over the past four years. Hanoi Beer has been well received by the community and is now sold at some of the largest beer and liquor superstores in the US, such as Total Wine, as well as at Vietnamese-owned supermarkets such as Hong Kong and Camau, and at upscale restaurant chains in central Houston, including Uchiko Restaurant and JAM Vietkitchen.

As part of the roundtable, HABECO representatives also held meetings with a number of major business owners in the southern US and other states to introduce HABECO’s strengths and further promote its Hanoi Beer products.

Building on the results of these business connections, representatives of the ACC expressed their desire to strengthen cooperation with the Vietnamese business community in the food and beverage sector. As Vice Chairman of the Viet Nam Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Association, Tran Dinh Thanh is expected to help foster connections between the association’s member businesses and the network of restaurants, companies and partners affiliated with the ACC.

In recent years, the Viet Nam Trade Office in Houston has maintained cooperative ties with the Asian Chamber of Commerce in Houston and its network of more than 650 partners and member businesses. This is considered an important foundation for further strengthening links between the Vietnamese and US business communities, particularly in food and beverage production, processing, import-export and investment during the 2026 - 2030 period.