Vietnamese manufacturers work with distributors

In the supply-demand connection program launched in October 2018, Lotte Mart, the big retailer from the Republic of Korea, signed tens of MOUs on distributing Vietnamese-made products at Lotte’s supermarkets throughout the country.

Nguyen Phuc Khoa, deputy general director of Satra, said under the programs, Satra prioritizes the sale of local specialty food which is placed on separate shelves in eye-catching positions.

Meanwhile, Co-op Mart, VinMart, MM Mega Market report that Vietnam goods account for 90-95 percent of total products available at their distribution chains.

Le Viet Nga, deputy director of the Domestic Market Department, said MOIT acts as a bridge that links producers/farmers and distributors/retailers, so that small enterprises and farmers can provide their products to modern distribution channels.

About 90 percent of domestically made products are being sold at more than 9,000 points of sale which have committed to sell products at stable prices.

Retail chains have also contacted Vietnamese producers to run sale promotion programs to boost sales of Vietnamese goods. Saigon Coop in August-September 2018 ran ‘Tu hao hang Viet’ (the pride of Vietnamese goods) campaign with the budget of hundreds of billions of dong.

This is a yearly program which has been occurring in the last 21 years at Saigon Co-op channels, including Co.opmart, Co.opXtra and Co.op Food.

Nguyen Anh Duc, deputy general director of Saigon Co-op, said that the retailer offers preferences to Vietnamese enterprises in product collection, goods display areas and positions. It also tries to boost sales of Vietnam’s products abroad with farm products exported to Singapore.

In October 2018, Coupang Group from the Republic of Korea came to Vietnam to seek farm produce and food supply sources (species, instant noodle, pho, canned food, frozen food, dried fruits, coffee, cashew nuts and pepper). It plans to find 1,800 farms produce items in Vietnam this year for its online sales.

Vietnam goods are popular among foreign consumers. Statista’s market survey on product origin index conducted in 2017 on 43,000 consumers in 50 countries found that Vietnam’s goods ranked 27th out of 50 countries in product quality as assessed by Japanese consumers. Meanwhile, the Dutch put Vietnam in the 23rd position.

Experts all agree that many products have high quality but cannot sell well because of the lack of long-term reasonable ad strategies. With limited financial capability, producers hesitate to work with supermarkets to run regular sale promotions.