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Rural market - "gold mine" for producers and distributors
Hosting over 70% of the country's population, 64mil people, who have greater and greater shopping demands, rural areas prove to be a ‘gold mine’ for local producers which have not been fully exploited, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Mr Matthaes from TNS, a market survey firm, said that 62.5% of GDP comes from rural areas, where the number of customers ready to consume products is three times higher than in urban areas.
The number of customers who have the monthly income of over VND1.5mil in rural areas has been increasing, while demand has also been increasing sharply. The noteworthy thing is that the rural market tends to refuse cheap and low-quality products for products of higher grade.
According to the Research Centre and Support Company (BSA), some 70% of total commodities are consumed in rural areas, but the retail network in the areas proves to be inefficient.
Dr Tran Du Lich, Director of the HCM City Economics Institute, said that it is now the best time to stimulate the rural market, as this can help improve the sales of domestic products.
However, the most important thing is that the pockets of rural residents have become heavier.
Upgrading infrastructure in rural areas has been cited as a very important thing to do to improve the living standards of rural people. The prime minister has decided to allocate VND4tril from the Vietnam Development Bank to help localities implement the programme on irrigation improvement, developing rural transport and infrastructure for aquaculture and trade villages, which will last until the end of 2015.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment said that since 1999, Vietnam has mobilised VND29tril from domestic sources for upgrading rural transportation. However, the demand for capital for rural infrastructure proves to be very big, and will require a huge sum of capital to be mobilised from many other sources as well.
According to TNS, rural areas prove to be a big market with 95% of households ready to buy TVs, 92% ready to buy electric or gas cookers, 33% able to buy music players or transistor radios. 30% of rural people want to buy refrigerators, washing machines, and 9% want to buy computers.
VietNamNet, TP
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