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Exporters scramble to ship Tet goods to Vietnamese expats
With Tet approaching, companies that export traditional New Year goodies to the Vietnamese diaspora abroad are working hard to ensure the goods go on time.
Nguyen Xuan Huy, Director of Ngoc Ngan Agricultural Processing Joint Stock Company based in southern Tien Giang Province, said all his employees had to work until very late at night to complete an order of more than 100 tonnes of fruits from an Italian importer.
At Long Uyen One Member Co., Ltd in My Tho Industrial Park, workers are hastily collecting, processing, and packaging chili, ginger, and dragon fruit for export to South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Nguyen Ngoc Nam, Director of Tien Giang Food Company, said his company shipped 4,000 tonnes of special rice under the Nine Dragons and Vieât Flavour brands, glutinous rice, and 200 tonnes of banh trang (Girdle cake) to several countries in the last two months.
"Despite the economic downturn, the demand for Tet specialties, including banh tet (Cylindrical glutinous rice cake) and mut (Preserved fruit) has not shrunk and even increased," Quach Hung Tong, General Director of Hai Minh Production and Trading Company in HCM City's Cu Chi District, said.
Besides familiar items as banh tet, banh chung (A square glutinous rice cake) and banh it (Glutinous rice cake), Phat Trien Dong Thap Co., Ltd has this year started to export xoi gac (Glutinous rice steamed with gac fruit) to the EU. Most people consider the red sticky rice as a symbol of luck and offer it to worship ancestors.
Hoang Ny, Director of Thanh Tam Bonsai Art Center, said her firm exported three consignments of apricot trees to Asian countries for display during Tet.
Tong said an increasing number of foreigners were becoming fond of Vietnamese specialty foods because of their unique taste.
However, Pham Ngoc Thuy, owner of Thanh Long Sweet and Jam Processing Enterprise, had a word of warning: if the country wants to sustain its exports, food hygiene and safety should be a top priority during the production, storage, and transport, she said.
Additives should not be used, she added.
vietnamnews
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