Entering the beginning of the 10th lunar month, many businesses producing food, consumer goods, etc. are ready for their Tet business plans.
The market has not had many positive developments in the last quarter of 2024, and sluggish purchasing power has made businesses not dare to make bold plans for production and business for Tet 2025.
Prepare early
According to the reporter of Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper, food production enterprises using domestic agricultural products as raw materials and distribution enterprises have started preparing Tet goods very early.
However, recent storms No. 3 and No. 6 have affected the supply of agricultural products, so businesses must coordinate with suppliers and growing areas to ensure the quantity and input prices for production and business.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thang, Deputy General Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Trading Cooperatives (Saigon Co.op), said that the unit has coordinated with growing areas, provided financial support for cultivation and guaranteed product consumption.
According to Mr. Thang, this year Saigon Co.op has invested more finance to purchase agricultural products and has planned for 3-6 months to join hands to provide quality products at reasonable prices to consumers. In addition, Saigon Co.op has also coordinated with the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City to implement the program "Responsible Green Tick" to bring green, quality products to consumers.
"This year, we believe that the group of goods serving ordinary workers and disadvantaged people will consume strongly, so we focus on promoting the supply of goods at lower prices than daily prices. Saigon Co.op has a plan to coordinate with manufacturers and suppliers to increase reserves by 30%-40% compared to normal days for disadvantaged customers, and at the same time implement many attractive promotional programs to stimulate purchasing power, accompanying suppliers to develop the market," said Mr. Thang.
Specifically, Saigon Co.op will prepare about VND10,000 billion worth of Tet goods, an increase of 20%-50% depending on the product group compared to normal business months. Most of the budget is prioritized for stockpiling market-stabilizing product groups including rice, sugar, cooking oil, pork, poultry, poultry eggs, processed foods, vegetables, seafood, etc., the rest is for food, non-food items and Tet specialties. In the days leading up to Tet, Co.opmart supermarkets will organize more mobile shipments to remote areas, areas affected by storms and floods.
Purchasing power is difficult to predict, focus on keeping prices stable
According to many businesses, the purchasing power of the upcoming Tet holiday is basically difficult to predict because consumers are more cautious in their daily spending and especially increase their sensitivity to prices. To keep prices of essential consumer goods stable in the last months of the year, distributors have continuously worked with suppliers of meat, fish, shrimp, eggs, etc. to agree on the quantity and price of Tet goods.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong Ngoc, purchasing director of fresh products of Bach Hoa Xanh chain of stores, said that she has just signed a strategic cooperation agreement with CPV Food to ensure the supply of quality fresh chicken at stable prices to serve consumer demand at the end of the year.
"Every day, Bach Hoa Xanh consumes about 250 tons of chicken, of which more than 30 tons/day (about 1,000 tons/month) comes from CPV Food. It is expected that during peak seasons such as Christmas, Lunar New Year, etc., the import volume will increase by 30%-50% and prices will be stable," Ms. Ngoc informed.
On the supplier side, many manufacturing companies said that the supply of goods is abundant, including domestically produced goods and imported goods. Ms. Phung My Linh, Sales Director of Southern and Central regions of CPV Food, affirmed that CPV Food still has a lot of room for production.
Currently, CPV Food's factory in Binh Phuoc is slaughtering about 100,000 chickens/day, while the factory's designed capacity is 167,000 chickens/day. "The company will stabilize the prices of its products. In addition, it will introduce more processed meat products to diversify Tet dishes for customers," Ms. Linh informed.
Also planning to launch new products that are friendly to consumers' health for the Tet market, Mr. Nguyen Dang Hien, General Director of Bidrico Company, said that competition in the modern market requires businesses to always innovate and bring more added value to customers. "With the trend of green production, Bidrico has launched products from Ngoc Linh ginseng and red ginseng, which have initially been received quite positively by the market" - Mr. Hien expressed.
This Tet season, Bidrico increased production output by about 12% compared to the same period last year, expecting purchasing power to improve as consumers continue to reduce alcohol consumption and replace it with other soft drinks.
"There are also many difficulties, especially when the price of sugar and some production materials, plastic packaging... increases, pushing up the cost of products by 6%-7%" - Mr. Hien worried. With more than 30 years of experience in the food industry, Mr. Hien said that if businesses increase their selling prices corresponding to the increase in cost, it will be difficult to compete in the market because consumers will not accept it.
Meanwhile, a representative of a company supplying vegetables and fruits to several large supermarket chains is worried that it will be difficult to sell products this Tet holiday. "Since the beginning of the year, supermarkets have been competing to reduce prices to attract customers, causing suppliers to be caught up in the cycle of low prices, greatly affecting sales and profits.
"Recently, the supermarket has given a difficult task of making cheap fruit trays in the context that many types of fruits for Tet such as papaya and grapefruit are out of stock, so there is a possibility that there will be a shortage of goods and high prices by Tet. Faced with many difficulties, the company set a target equal to Tet 2024 instead of forcing sales without profit" - the representative of this company expressed.
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