Vietnam’s two-way trade turnover with Russia is expected to reach US$10 billion by 2020.

By the end of September, Vietnam’s exports to Russia rose dramatically to US$904 million, up 63.2 percent from a year earlier. Of the figure, seafood earned US$69.1 million, garment (US$54.9 million), coffee (US$30.5 million), footwear (US$32.2 million) and rice (US$30.2 million).

Two-way trade between the two countries showed a sharp increase from US$350-400 million in 1990s to more than US$1 billion in 2007 and US$1.813 billion in 2010.

Vietnam’s imports from Russia in the first nine months of this year, mainly steel, fertilizers, machinery, equipment, tools and petroleum, dropped by 35.5 percent to US$513 million,.

Head of the Trade Promotion Agency Do Thang Hai said despite this fact bilateral economic and trade relations are still far from meeting the two countries’ potential. Leaders from the two countries recently agreed to lift the levels of bilateral trade exchange to US$3 billion in 2012 and US$10 billion by 2020.

Hai said Russia with its GDP of US$1,500 billion and more than 140 million consumers is a great potential market for Vietnamese products.

He warned that to have a long-term plan for exports to the Russian market, domestic businesses should contact Vietnamese embassy and trade office staff in Russia to get first-hand knowledge of its laws.