Confectionery production. Vietnamese confectioners have upped their game in recent times, resulting in both rising domestic sales and exports. (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese confectionery businesses haveupgraded production technologies to improve quality and efficiency, anddeveloped new product lines to retain market share at home and also boostexports amid fierce competition.
Bibica Corporation, one of the country’s largest confectionery firms, opened afactory in Long An province last year with modern lines imported from Europeand the US.
The company said it is part of a long-term development strategy with a focus oninvesting in modern technologies, increasing capacity and improving products tomeet new trends.
In recent years Bibica has also focused on distribution systems and finding newmarkets.
Its number of sales outlets went up from 95,000 in 2016 to 130,000 by the endof last year, and it exported its products to over 21 markets, includingquality-conscious ones such as the US, Japan and Singapore.
Another confectionery producer, Huu Nghi Food, is building a 800 billion VND (34.2million USD) food factory in Bac Ninh province, thought to be one the mostmodern of its kind in Southeast Asia, and it is expected to be open this year.
The company said the factory would help increase productivity and both meetdomestic demand and expand exports.
Bao Hung International JSC has built a second factory equipped with a Europeanproduction line and invested in expanding its distribution system in. It hasalso worked to obtain international certificates required to export itsproducts to more markets.
Truong Phu Chien, general director of Bibica, said Vietnamese enterprises havean advantage over their foreign rivals in terms of understanding local tastesand distribution systems.
But Pham Ngoc Hung, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of BusinessAssociations, said many consumers still prefer imports partly because of localproducts’ limitations in terms of models, packaging, marketing strategies, andbranding.
Only a few local firms could take their foreign counterparts head-on, he said.
Customs figures show that confectionery imports have increased significantly inrecent years to top 360.6 million USD last year, with products coming mainlyfrom Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, China, and the Republic of Korea.
In the reverse direction, sales were more than 660 million USD to 29 countriesand territories, including choosy markets such as the US, Japan, Australia,France, and the UK.
Experts said therefore more communication campaigns are needed to appriseconsumers about local products and their quality./.
VNA
