Tradition New Year Festival: Domestic Confectionery Market Thrives

The “Buy Vietnamese” campaign has caused a significant impact on the domestic confectionery market in Vietnam in addition to pluses thanks to excessive content of lead in Chinese products and high exchange rate of USD/VND. Vietnamese confectioneries are certainly at an advantage in the New Year 2010.

Opportunities for Vietnamese goods to thrive

According to a recent survey released by the Information Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agro Info), the volume of imported goods registered to sell during the New Year of Tiger fell 30 % over the same period in 2008.

In addition, the rising exchange rate of US dollar against the Vietnamese dong increases difficulties against importers. This is an apparent opportunity to occupy the domestic market and win the trust of consumers.

Currently, the number of Vietnamese candies sold on such distribution channels as supermarkets, shops and dealers significantly rises from the same period of last year. Supermarkets operators said domestic goods account for 70 % and foreigners make up 30 %. If the %age of Vietnamese goods at the Co-op Mart is 99 %, it is 90 % at BigC.

Active producers

Although it is more than two months from the Lunar New Year, several confectionery companies announced their sales plans for the peak shopping season. In addition, distributors and retailers have also prepared for the surging demand.

A representative from Bibica Corporation said Tet is an opportunity for his company’s products to compete with imported rivals; so Bibica expects to offer 4,500 tonnes of confectioneries, a rise of 20 % over the same period in 2008. About 150 categories like biscuits or cakes like Nutri – Bis Light, Hura Light, Light Netsure cereal power, Gello sweets, Hi – Spring jams will be introduced for the Tet.

Pham Nguyen confectionery firm also expects to supply about 6,000 tonnes of confectioneries, up 40 % over the same period. Additionally, products sold in this Lunar New Year will be changed their selling prices to sharpen their competitive edges.

Ms Tran Ngoc Huyen, Director of Phan Nhat Co., Ltd, also said sugared tamarinds, salted sugared lemons and sugared dried apricots of the company are a favourite of Vietnamese and foreign consumers. Although sugar prices have increased by 30 %, the company has not hiked its prices. The company plans to provide the market with 15 tonnes of confectionaries, mainly focusing on three main markets of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Nha Trang.

For distributors, Ms Duong Thi Quynh Trang, Director of External Relations of BigC Vietnam, said: To prepare enough quality candy for the New Year season, the BigC has worked with confectionary suppliers since the start on October 2009. According to this plan, such confectionaries as Bibica, Kinh Do, Hai Ha, Pham Nguyen and Lubico will be main suppliers for BigC. Imported goods from Malaysia, Singapore, etc only account for 10 %. Ms Trang also affirmed that the rise in sugar prices will lead to higher prices, but not much, of candies during the Tet. BigC expects to sell all 400 kinds of confectioneries, a rise of 30 % in volume over the same period last year.

With the active preparation from suppliers to distributors, consumers will surely buy more domestic goods during the Tet.

Tags: Vietnam Domestic Confectionery Market