Enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City have stockpiled goods worth some 15.85 trillion VND for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday (Tet) which falls on February 19, a whopping increase of 109 percent compared to the previous holiday, the Saigon Times Daily reported.

The paper quoted HCM City Department of Industry and Trade as saying that of the total supply, local enterprises will sell more than 8.3 trillion VND (some 387.8 million USD) of goods under the city’s price stabilisation programme during the biggest holiday in Vietnam, up nearly 69.5 percent in value over last Tet.

Particularly, local companies have stored a total supply of goods valued at 9.26 trillion VND for the peak sales period from January 20 to February 18, including items worth more than 4.86 trillion VND for the price stabilisation programme.

The department said the HCM City Union of Trading Co-operatives (Saigon Co.op) has stored goods worth over 4.6 trillion VND, including 1.92 trillion VND for the price stabilisation programme, Saigon Trading Group (Satra) with nearly 9.82 trillion VND and 742 billion VND, Pham Ton Co. Ltd. with 411 billion VND and 406 billion VND, and Vinatextmart with 364 billion VND and 164 billion VND.
Le Ngoc Dao, deputy director of the department, said participating enterprises of the price stabilisation program have prepared sufficient goods to meet the soaring demand of residents in the city during the traditional holiday.

Dao said their goods supplies are 10-134 percent higher than the target of the city’s government and grow 18.4-260.4 percent compared to last Tet. Of which, vegetables and seafood are forecast to jump nearly 134 percent and over 103 percent respectively over the previous Tet.

The goods stored in large quantities include poultry, cooking oil, sugar, processed foods, cattle and eggs.

Three wholesale markets in the city have mapped out plans for Tet. They wholesale a total of 8,000 tonnes of goods daily on normal days but their supplies are predicted to surge by 50-70 percent in the several days prior to the holiday.

As usual, Binh Dien Wholesale Market will organise a flower festival from the 15th to 30th of December of Lunar Calendar (from February 3 to 18). The event will feature 480 stalls for pots of flower and ornamental trees, up 350 booths over last Tet.

Dao said the logo of the price stabilisation programme will be printed on the packaging of all products chosen for the programme this year.

There had been nearly 8,960 selling points set up for the price stabilisation programme as of December 1 last year, up 756 points against April when the annual programme was launched. Participating enterprises plan to add 286 points between now and Tet.-VNA