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Stable goods lose attraction
Many city residents are opting not to buy goods sold under the city's price stabilisation programme because they find no significant price or quality advantage, local reports say.
However, several participating retailers and distributors insist that comparisons being made between goods sold under the programme and those outside it are not apt.
Despite the abundant supply of many price-stabilised products at supermarkets compared to two months ago, especially sugar and cooking oil, demand is very low, according to the Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper.
The paper quoted Hong Nga, a District 8 resident in HCM City, as saying the price of the Thanh Cong sugar brand was VND21,500 per kilo under the price stabilisation programme, but its quality was not as good as the Bonsu brand sugar priced at VND21,900 per kilo or the Bien Hoa sugar at VND22,500 per kilo.
"I have decided to buy Bien Hoa sugar, it's only VND1,000 more expensive than the price-stabilised sugar but the quality is better," Nga said.
A similar argument seems to prevail for other products like cooking oil and eggs.
Eggs sold by Ba Huan and Vinh Thanh Dat companies cost VND2,250 each for chicken eggs and VND2,750 each for duck eggs, but these are almost the same as eggs sold in traditional markets outside the stabilisation programme, the paper reported.
In fact, at the BigC supermarkets, "Wow" brand chicken eggs are priced at VND19,100 for 10 eggs, significantly cheaper than the price-stabilised eggs.
The story remains the same for cooking oil, with prices of VND35,000 and VND38,700 per litre not much lower than non-stabilised products like the Marvela and De Nhat brands at VND40,900 and VND41,000 per litre respectively, while Cai Lan cooking oil is available for just VND36,000 per litre.
Thanh Thuy of District 3 in HCM City said: "I read the local newspapers and know that the prices of stabilised-price products are supposed to be at least 10 per cent cheaper than market prices, but I could only find a few promotional products at reasonable prices.
"Other products like sugar, eggs, cooking oil and pork are not significantly cheaper than market prices, so I've decided to go to the market near my house since it is more convenient."
The director of a retail chain in HCM City, who wished to be unnamed, told the Lao Dong newspaper that it was significant that demand for price-stabilised goods was falling even as prices of many products were rising and looked set to rise further.
Officials from the city's Department of Industry and Trade reiterated that the prices under the stabilisation programme were always 10 per cent cheaper than market prices at the very least.
Pham Thi Huan, director of the Ba Huan Ltd Company, a supplier of clean eggs, said comparing the price of goods under the price stabilisation programme with those outside, it was not rational because the former guaranteed quality as well as food safety and hygiene standards.
Le Ngoc Dao, deputy director of the Department of Industry and Trade, said such comparisons had to be made between products of the same kind with the same specifications.
HCM City began implementing the price stabilisation programme with nine essential items on April 9.
The volume of products under the price-stabilisation programme this year has soared by between 14 per cent to 41 per cent compared to last year.
The capital outlay for the programme has also increased by VND32.6 billion (US$1.55 million) over last year to VND412 billion ($19.61 million), said Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy chairwoman of the HCM City People's Committee.
The number of businesses participating in the programme has also increased to 22 this year from last year's 14, she said.
vietnamnews
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