Vietnamese consumers using Vietnamese or Chinese goods?

Experts have warned that Vietnamese consumers will lose confidence in Vietnamese manufacturers, if the manufacturers continue importing goods made in China, labeling the goods with their trademarks and then selling the products as Vietnamese goods in the domestic market.

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa, over the last year, since the Communist Party’s Politburo launched the national program “Vietnamese consume Vietnamese goods”, 58 percent of Vietnamese people have been interested in Vietnamese goods, while the percentage was lower, at 23 percent, one year ago.

Made-in-Vietnam products have become more valuable in the eyes of Vietnamese people, who once thought that all the products made in Vietnam were bad quality.

However, the problem is that when more Vietnamese consumers now like using made-in-Vietnam products, they cannot buy actual Vietnamese products, because many goods, though bearing Vietnamese labels, are products made in China.

“Made-in-Vietnam” means “made in China”

Having returned from a working trip in the southern province of Tra Vinh, Vu Kim Hanh, Chair of the Vietnamese High-Quality Products Club, related that 80 percent of garment products available in the province are Chinese products, of which 50 percent are Chinese products with Vietnamese labels.

“It is a growing tendency now that Vietnamese manufacturers shut down their production lines, lay off workers and then have their products outsourced to China,” Hanh said.

The products made in China are then carried out to Vietnam, where Vietnamese enterprises give them Vietnamese labels and then sell on the domestic market.

“It is more profitable to outsource products to China, because Vietnamese enterprises will have products with lower production costs, which allows them to sell products at more competitive prices,” Hanh said. “But Vietnamese production will have …nothing.”

“This should be seen as a behavior of swindling customers,” she added.

Sharing the same view with Hanh, Nguyen Thi Hong Huong, Director of Vinatex Mart, specializing in retailing garment products with Vietnamese labels, said: “I totally do not agree with what Vietnamese manufacturers are doing: having products outsourced to China and then selling products as Vietnamese products. This will spoil the prestige of “made-in-Vietnam” goods.”

According to Huong, when labeling Vietnamese labels, enterprises tell consumers that the products are made in Vietnam. “They must not say these are Vietnamese products if the products are made in China,” she affirmed.

“The products should be considered as counterfeit or imitating goods,” she added.

Struggling to conquer domestic market

The campaign “Vietnamese buy Vietnamese goods” was launched at the time when the global economic recession occurred, and Vietnamese enterprises tried to sell their products on the domestic market as export markets were narrowed. The State has spent 59 billion dong over the last year to promote domestic trade.

However, it is not easy to sell products on the domestic market, because Vietnamese enterprises, though having good knowledge about the US or European markets, know nothing about the domestic market.

Pham Xuan Hong, General Director of Saigon 3 Garment Company, said that in order to make products for local consumption, enterprises have to install new equipment, build new workshops and make additional investments which may cost up to 60 percent of enterprises’ investment capital. Therefore, not many enterprises prove to be brave enough to make products for local consumption.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises are not capable of developing their distribution network. “A customer in Lang Son province told me,” Hanh related “that he heard that some Chinese clothes contain toxic substances, but I have no other choice. Vietnamese made products are not available in Lang Son”.

A recent survey conducted by the Vietnam Business Studies and Assistance Centre (BSA) shows that only 17 percent of Vietnamese people say they will spend money to buy new products made in Vietnam, but even so, they do not have much confidence on new Vietnamese products. – Vietnamnet

Tags: Chinese goods, Vietnamese goods