Tet food exports begin

Tran Thanh Toan, owner of Tran Gia factory in the southern province of Dong Nai, said he has shipped 30 tons of bánh chưng (traditional cake made from glutinous rice, mung bean, pork, and other ingredients), bánh tét (the southern version of bánh chưng), and phrynium leaves to France and the US.

Orders for bánh chưng have doubled this year, he said.

Tran Gia also tied up with dried fruit candy and confectionery makers to send their products along with its products, he added.

Pham Thi Ngoc Lien, owner of the Ho Chi Minh City-based food maker Ngoc Lien, told Tuoi Tre she exported three containers of sour and sweet foods and salted fish to the US which has a large Vietnamese community.

Demand for Tet foods is huge and her factory is operating at full capacity, she said.

Hai Dang, a HCMC-based fish sauce producer, has shipped a 20-foot container to Japan at a very high price since this Vietnamese specialty has become very popular there, Nguyen Thanh Hung, sales manager, said.

Other items like girdle cakes, sour shrimps, pickled small leeks, preserved eggplants, and spring rolls have also seen rising demand in the US, Japan, Europe, and other markets, producers said.

Most of them are becoming popular with non-Vietnamese in these markets too, they said.

But despite good prices, margins are low due to rising costs, they grumbled.

The Lunar New Year falls in early February this year.

Tags: Vietnam Tet 2011, Vietnam Tet holiday