Goods demand for Tet up due to domestic confidence on economic recovery

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The purchasing power in the domestic market is expected to increase by between 15-20 percent from now until the 2021 Tet (Lunar New Year), with food products seeing the strongest rise, said Tran Duy Dong, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)’s Domestic Market Department.

The higher purchasing power is due to consumer confidence in macro-economic stability, along with increasing income of people at the end of the year, he said.

Therefore, enterprises have plans to prepare enough supply of goods and consumption stimulus programmes to meet people's needs, Dong said.

Those plans would not cause a great change in selling prices, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, at local markets, the prices of fresh food items will regularly fluctuate in the days approaching Tet due to strong increase in food demand. However, growth rate of the prices may be curbed partly because of stable prices at supermarkets and commercial centres and points selling stabilised-priced goods in localities, Dong said.

According to Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)’s Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development, all agricultural sectors such as cultivation, husbandry and fisheries are promoting production and processing to meet the needs of consumers at year-end and the Lunar New Year festival.

Toản said the demand for livestock products, especially meat and eggs, until Tet is expected to increase by 5-10 percent compared to the monthly average demand at about 250,000-350,000 tonnes of meat and 1-1.7 billion eggs.

With the maintenance of stable cattle and poultry herds after re-production and disease is strictly controlled, the market will keep a balance between supply and demand for all kinds of meat to avoid a shortage of food.

Tran Thi Phuong Lan, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, said by the end of 2020 and until the Lunar New Year in 2021, shopping demand in Hanoi will increase by between 3-20 percent for each commodity group.

To meet the needs of the people, the department has asked businesses in Hanoi to prepare sufficient supply for commodities with high demand before and during Tet, such as dried agricultural products (up 25-33 percent against normal months); gasoline (up 20 percent); and flowers and ornamental plants (up 25-35 percent).

The total value of goods for Tet in Hanoi is estimated to reach about 39.4 trillion VND, up about 5 percent compared to that for Tet in 2020.

Besides diversified supply sources, Lan said, the department opened 12 local markets and 300 mobile vendors to bring products to the people in suburban districts and mountainous communes, as well as employees in industrial zones.

Retailers will also sell goods for Tet at 28 shopping malls, 142 supermarkets, 455 markets, 11,382 e-commerce websites, thousands of convenience stores and agricultural product distribution chains.

Hanoi will open 28 sales points for producers and traders from other localities to sell their regional specialties, ensuring quality, origin and reasonable price, said Lan.

At the same time, the departments of industry and trade of localities in the Mekong Delta region have also completed preparation of goods for Tet.

According to the Department of Industry and Trade of Kien Giang, the province has a total volume of 51,500 tonnes of goods for Tet worth about 2.3 trillion VND, an increase of 6.73 percent over the same period last year.

In Tien Giang, the provincial People's Committee has plans to ensure the supply of essential goods for Tet in 2021. Under the plan, enterprises and cooperatives will store goods worth about 443.6 billion VND, including 98.4 billion VND in essential goods such as rice, sugar, cooking oil, meat and poultry./.