JETRO held a business-matching event in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, where Japanese companies expressed interest in developing the market, primarily for food products. Local challenges, including logistics and customs procedures, were also highlighted.
JETRO held a business-matching event in Vientiane from 7 to 9 October to promote Japanese companies' approaches to the local market. A total of 75 business meetings were held. The 11 participating companies handled food products, including seafood, fresh food and health foods, as well as cosmetics and household goods, while 23 local buyers attended.
Japanese companies participating for the first time showed interest in beauty and cosmetics products such as beauty creams and expressed enthusiasm about future expansion in the Laotian market. At the same time, logistics and institutional challenges were identified, including underdeveloped cold-chain infrastructure for fresh-food exports and a lack of transparency in customs procedures associated with land transportation.
The number of business partners from the previous fiscal year has been trending upward. Although the scale of individual transactions is small, some participants said that consolidating multiple inquiries could potentially secure enough cargo to fill one ocean container.
Local buyers said that, in addition to products they regularly purchase, such as Japanese sake and seasonings, there were many products they were seeing for the first time, and they valued the event as an opportunity to inspect the actual products before making decisions. In logistics, shared use by multiple shippers could reduce transportation costs, but coordinating shipping schedules and the allocation of costs was identified as a challenge.
Laos's consumer market is seeing growing adoption of modern trade, while improvements to logistics networks in neighboring countries, including the opening of the China–Laos Railway, are supporting the diversification of imported products, including those from Japan. The opening of a large commercial facility was also reported in August 2026.