Foreign foods and confectionery products are proving tough competition for local products in the run up to this year’s Tet festival due to higher quality, more diversity and increasing purchasing power of consumers, and unless local producers work harder and smarter, they will continue to lose market share.
Foreign confectionery products in Hanoi
“We’re selling both domestic and foreign products, but imported products are better selling thanks to the wider diversity of flavours and packaging,” said Thu Thao, owner of a store at Nguyen Binh Khiem Street in Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung District said.
Bich Khue, a small trader at Dong Xuan Market in Hanoi, said, “Our store’s candy and jam revenues have reached nearly VND10m a day, mainly foreign products, because they are becoming cheaper and are better quality.”
Groceries along several streets in Hanoi, such as Hang Buom, Ba Trieu, and Tay Son, are seeing a rise in confectionery products, beer and wines for the traditional holiday, mostly from Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea.
Major supermarkets such as Co.op Mart, Fivimart and Lotte have few locally made products, in part due to the sale of two locally famous confectioners — Kinh Do and Bibica — to US and South Korean investors.
Economist Nguyen Minh Phong said local confectioners were failing to compete because they were not diversifying products despite higher prices. “If the situation does not improve, more Vietnamese confectionery trademarks would be sold to foreign investors in the time to come.”
Australian beef is proving to be popular this year at such big supermarkets as Big C, Metro and Lotte. An official from Lotte said Australian beef is priced about the same as Vietnamese products and is being preferred because of its better quality.
Nguyen Dang Vang, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Animal Husbandry, said the country imports some 100,000 tonnes of meat annually, mainly fresh beef, a year. The Ministry of Industry and Trade statistics show Australian beef priced at VND70,000 a kilo at slaughterhouses, including taxes and fees while Vietnamese beef was VND80,000 a kilo.
“Domestic beef supply is failing to meet rising demand. Vietnamese beef may fail to compete with imported products unless the country modernises the animal husbandry industry to increase productivity and lower selling prices,” Vang said.
Đăng ký: VietNam News