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Foreign-made consumer products dominating market
Imported products, which are more expensive, are now overwhelming domestically-made products, which are much cheaper, in supermarts and retail centres.
When Japan-made products land
Hachihachi, a mini supermart in HCM City, has attracted a big number of customers as it specialises in selling imports from Japan. The items on sale here are diverse, from simple things used in families to high technology products.
Not all products here are made in Japan. The supermart also sells products made in Poland and China. The products are ordered by Japanese companies for Japanese people to use.
“Vietnamese people believe that the products made in Japan and used by Japanese people are all very good and they come here to buy them,” said Tran Binh, Head of the Business Division under Viet Ha Chi Company, which owns the mini supemart.
Binh said that everyday, the supermart issues 160 bills of sale, the dream of every small supermart. The main customers of the supermart are women aged above 30, and they spend several hundred thousand VND for every bill.
Imports replace domestic products?
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), in the first eight months of the year, six groups of import products saw import value increase by 100% over the same period of last year. Of these products, cars in complete built units saw the import increase of 206%.
GSO’s statistics also show that there has been a sharp increase in the imports of home appliances. Only 25,000 liquidizers with Blacker brand name were imported to Vietnam in the whole year of 2007, while 33,000 units were imported just in the first eight months of this year. The figures of iron were 125,000 for the whole year 2008 and 92,000 units for the eight months.
Foreign-made products are also dominating the markets which people thought controlled by domestic producers, like the apparel market. European and South Korean brand names are dominating the luxury segment of the market, while Chinese products are the first choice for those who seek cheap clothes.
The director of a garment company in HCM City said that the room for domestic products in the market has been narrowed. The director said that his company is considering setting up a division in charge of importing products for domestic sale.
Tax reduction is the reason
Senior Economist Pham Chi Lan said that the import tax rates imposed on Chinese goods are now relatively lower than the ones imposed on other WTO members. That explains why Chinese products are dominating the market. Moreover, a lot of Chinese products prove to be more competitive than Vietnamese ones.
Supermarts say that domestically-made apparel products just account for 30-40% of apparel sales at supemarts, while the others are imports from China.
Regarding plastics products, Deputy Director of Citimart chain Ngo Van Hai said that the ratio of Chinese, Thai and Malaysian products sold has increased from 20-30%, while plastic products have been thought to be the advantage of domestic producers.
Vo Van Duc Bay, Deputy Director of Cho Lon Plastics Company, admitted that foreign- made products have been flooding the market, and that Cho Lon and other companies have been trying hard to regain the market.
VNN
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