Missing home works both ways. A French person living in Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok or Shanghai often dreams… of a real cheese, a crusty baguette, a dry sausage. What French people abroad miss most is the table. For French companies, it is also a way into Asia.
What French people in Asia miss most
- Cheese: it exists in the big cities, but it is rare, imported and expensive, especially raw-milk cheeses.
- Bread: a real baguette, a country loaf, a butter croissant. Vietnam has nevertheless kept its bánh mì, a legacy of history.
- Charcuterie: dry sausage, cured ham, pâté, rillettes.
- Small pleasures: chocolate, jams, madeleines, quality butter.
The newspaper of French people abroad, Le Petit Journal, has published several articles on these "products that French people abroad miss so much"; food takes a large place in them.
What some French people have done locally
Faced with this gap, French people living in Asia have opened bakeries, cheese shops or artisan charcuterie workshops, producing locally rather than importing. Le Petit Journal Ho Chi Minh City, for example, presented an artisan charcuterie and cheese business set up there. Producing locally avoids the cost of transport and the import formalities for fresh products.
Exporting French products to Asia
For a small French company (cheesemaker, charcutier, biscuit maker, jam maker), Asia is a market, but the import rules for dairy products and meat are strict in each country, just as they are in Europe for products coming from Asia. Before you start:
- find out the rules of the target country (authorisations, health certificates, labelling);
- rely on the official export support (Team France Export, Business France, chambers of commerce);
- find a reliable importer or distributor there: that is the role of the Passerelle, which checks that the company exists in the official register of its country.
If you are targeting Vietnam, also read our guide on the agreement between the European Union and Vietnam, which reduces customs duties on many products.
A bridge both ways
The Passerelle is not only made to bring Asia to France. A French person looking for a distributor in Bangkok, a Vietnamese importer who wants French cheese, a Chinese restaurant looking for quality butter: each of them can publish a request.
Sources (consulted on 31 October 2026): Le Petit Journal, « Ces 5 produits qui manquent tant aux Français de l'étranger » and « Délices KP : de la charcuterie et des fromages artisanaux » (Ho Chi Minh City).