Food companies gearing up for Tet export season

Food companies say that the economic crisis more or less affects the export of specialty food to serve overseas Vietnamese people’ Tet celebration.

The small merchants who specialize in trading specialty food, such as picked vegetables or jams at some wholesale markets in HCM City all said that the exports decrease by 30 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year.

Menus diversified

Tri Duc and Thanh Long, the two companies that make and export jams in HCM City, have exported 22 tons of Tet goods so far. Tri Duc has exported some 16 tons of coconut, lotus seed jelly and some other types to the US and Taiwan. Meanwhile, Thanh Long has exported six tons of tamarind and custard jam.

Vinamit Company has said it has wrapped up the contracts on exporting dried fruits to China, Cambodia and Laos. Nguyen Lam Vien, Vinamit’s General Director, said that the Chinese market accounts for 60 percent of total turnover of Vinamit.

Tran Gia Company in Dong Nai province which specializes in making banh chung (square glutinous rice cake), has fulfilled the export of 20 tons of banh chung, banh tet (cylindric glutinous rice cake) and banh gai (glutinous rice cake dyed black in a concoction of leaves) to the EU and the US to serve overseas Vietnamese’ Tet celebration. Tran Thanh Toan, the owner of Tran Gia, said this is for the sixth year Tran Gia exports different kinds of cakes abroad.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, Deputy Director of Hanh Phuc Food Processing Company, said that he began receiving orders for Tet food right in September and October of 2011. The clients – the Vietnamese owners of the small supermarkets or the owners of small shops – ordered high quality fish sauce to carry abroad for reselling.

Phu Hoa Dong, a big rice paper maker in Cu Chi district of HCM City, has exported several tons of rice paper of different kinds to Asian markets. Le The Khai, Chair of Phu Hoa Dong Cooperative, said that the products have been selling well, because this is indispensable material for making Vietnamese traditional food.

Some merchants at the Markets of Ben Thanh and Tan Dinh have also sold products for export, but they said the sold volume is modest.

But export volume down
Tran Gia said that the order for banh chung has dropped by 20 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year. Tri Duc, which has sold 80 tons, or Thanh Long, 150 tons, also said that the export volume is just a model volume if compared with the sales on the domestic market.

Vien said that in 2010, the Tet goods market heated up since November, but the orders only came in December this year, while the orders are small.

Some other exporters said that though they received orders, but they refused to sign contracts, because the orders were too small.

Hoang Thi Tam Ai, the owner of Tri Duc, said that fruit jam is just a provisional product, which does not bring high profits. Tri Duc prioritizes to sell to domestic clients, because they are the loyal clients, while foreigners do not place orders regularly.

Meanwhile, Pham Thi Ngoc Thuy, the owner of Thanh Long, said that the company would refuse small export orders, because exports have to respect different regulations in quality set up by different import countries. Besides, exporters always have to wait for a long time to get payment for the exports.

“In general, importers do not draw up plan to import products. They ordered in September and wanted deliveries just after a couple of weeks,” she complained.

Source: SGTT

Tags: Vietnam food prices