Customers buy fresh food at a supermarket in HCM City. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho ChiMinh City’s Department of Industry and Trade has coordinated with othergovernment agencies, business groups and districts in the city to ensure supplyof essential goods at stable prices amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
It has asked production unitsand enterprises participating in the city’s price stabilisation programme anddistribution systems to ensure timely, adequate and continuous supply of goods.
They have been instructed toensure supply is 30-40 percent higher than during normal periods and be readyto promptly ship goods to price-stabilisedand other retail stores.
They also need to prepare rawmaterials to increase supply by 50-100 percent if necessary.
It has urged retailers topromote sales online and via telephone.
Nguyen Huynh Trang, its deputydirector, said in the worst-case scenario of COVID-19 spreading in thecommunity, her department would implement measures to help enterprisesstockpile goods and raw materials and ensure production and supply are notinterrupted.
The city plans to restrict theexport of raw materials required for producing food and products for preventionand control of the pandemic as well as the finished products, she said.
"Face mask manufacturersand distributors in HCM City have stepped up the production and supply to meetconsumer demand. Co.opmart, Vinmart, Lotte Mart, Satra, and Big C supermarketchains have been providing a variety of antibacterial cloth masks.”
The department also hasspecific plans for supply of food to quarantine areas in three scenarios: thenumbers of COVID-19 patients are 100, 300 and 500 and the numbers of isolatedpeople are 10,000, 20,000 and 40,000.
It has estimated the quantityof vegetables, pork, chicken, fish, eggs, rice and bottled water requiredin each scenario so that it can secure supply.
It and the Department of Healthare responsible for providing food and other basic necessities to people inquarantine areas.
Together with the city marketmanagement sub-department, it will strengthen inspection to prevent speculationand price gouging.
Nguyen Anh Duc, deputy directorof Saigon Co.op, said its supermarkets have stocked a large volume of goods toensure supply and offered discounts on many products at their more than 800stores nation-wide./.
VNA
