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Retailer helps local goods gain ground in home market
The Big C supermarket chain in Vietnam has prioritised Vietnamese goods for their inventory and is speeding up the export of high-quality goods to sister supermarket chains around the world.
The move is in response to a programme dubbed “Vietnamese people use Vietnamese goods” initiated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to encourage consumption of locally-made products among Vietnamese people.
“Big C will spare the best-positioned stalls to display local goods in the coming time,” said Duong Quynh Trang, an executive for external relations, said.
Big C supermarkets have identified the dominant role of locally-made products and consider imported goods only as a supplement to diversify their inventory and provide customers with more choices, Trang added.
According to observers, Vietnamese consumers have increasingly turned to using made-in-Vietnam products instead of imported items within the last two years. The items of growing preference for local taste include home appliances, dairy products, and clothing.
Anticipating the trend towards local goods, Big C supermarkets have been accelerating cooperation with local producers to develop procurement contracts that encourage production of better quality goods, such as a contract to buy agricultural products from farmers in Da Lat city for export.
The system is also working on procurement contracts to buy hygienically-produced vegetables and meat for export.
In 2008 alone, Big C shipped 1,000 containers of Vietnamese agricultural produce, seafood, handicrafts, clothing and furniture to places in Europe, Latin America and the Indian Pacific.
The supermarket chain has set a target of achieving a 40 percent increase in the export of Vietnamese goods to the world in 2009 compared to 2008. Since early this year, Big C has exported 13.5 million USD worth of local items, mostly foodstuffs.
With its first store built in Vietnam in 1998 by the French retail and distribution corporation Groupe Casino, the Big C supermarket chain now has retail outlets in major cities in Vietnam, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai phong and Da Nang.
vietnamplus
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