Authorities have set up plans to stock the shelves for the lunar new year or Tet festival.

The Hanoi Industry and Trade Department said it expects retail sales in the Moth of Tet to increase 20 percent to 12 trillion VND (671.1 million USD) compared with previous months.

Food sales would increase to 6,000 tonnes of poultry meat, 3,000 tonnes of beef, 5,000 tonnes of seafood, 90,000 tonnes of vegetable and fruit and by 20 percent for petrol compared with that in the last lunar new year.

The departments of finance and industry and trade proposed to give interest-free loans totalling 250 billion VND (14 billion USD) for major consumption suppliers to stabilise prices and supply in Hanoi market. The loans are mainly for suppliers of rice, meat, sugar, cooking oil and processed food products and eggs.

Hoang Tho Xuan, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Domestic Market Department, said the municipal department of industry and trade should put vegetables on the list of goods.

Vu Vinh Phu, chairman of the Hanoi Supermarket Association, said the price of most goods is high at present and would remain stable if the weather does not change.

Vu Thi Hau, deputy director of Fivimart supermarket said supermarkets and big stores in the city brought in goods for the Tet festival three months earlier so prices should remain stable.
The Hanoi Trade Corporation (Hapro) plans to stock 650 tonnes of rice, 630 tonnes of poultry and meats, 840 tonnes of processed food, 338 tonnes of seafood and 26 million units of eggs with a total outlay of 400 billion VND (22.37 million USD), Hapro deputy general director Truong Minh Thanh said.
Stocking up includes 70 million litres of beer at the Hanoi Alcohol, Beer and Beverage Corporation and 400 tonnes of confectionery at the Hanoi Confectionery Joint Stock Company.

Trading centres and supermarkets, including Fivimarket, Metro, Big C, Intimex and Citimart, would stock essential goods with a total value of 1 trillion VND (55.9 million USD).

Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade deputy director Nguyen Thi Nhu Mai said there are also plans for mobile sales of consumption goods in remote districts to give them quality at reasonable prices.
The city has 362 markets, 13 trading centres, 74 supermarkets and about 200 self-service and convenient shops./.