Vietnamese still spend big on luxury goods in 2013

Despite economic difficulties, Vietnamese people still spent billions of US dollars this year on luxury cars or mobile phones, heard the Radio Voice of Vietnam, quoting source from the General Department of Customs.
Despite economic difficulties, Vietnamese people still spent billions ofUS dollars this year on luxury cars or mobile phones, heard the RadioVoice of Vietnam, quoting source from the General Department of Customs.

The authority estimated Vietnamese people paid out up to 1 billion USD purchasing high-class mobile phones this year.

Statistics show Vietnam bought around 17 million mobile handsets in 2013, of which 7 million were smart phones.

The country’s smart phones market grew by 156 percent this year, ranking it first in Southeast Asia.

December has seen an additional 3,000 complete build-up vehiclesshipped into the country, taking the total number of imported autos thisyear to 34,500 units worth 709 million USD.

TheGeneral Statistics Office said that the import of CBU units in 2013shows an increase of 25.9 percent in volume and 15.2 percent in value.The rising number of imported vehicles shows the restored confidence ofconsumers.

Luxury cars imported from the UK, France, Germany and the US are favourites with Vietnamese consumers.

Vietnam turns also into big sturgeon caviar producer and consumer.Analysts said the demand for sturgeon caviar is very high in Vietnamwith the rich willing to pay big money for caviar, which they believe isvery good for health.

Sturgeon caviar has beenwell known throughout the world as the most expensive food, called “theblack diamond”. A kilo of caviar is priced at 1,500-6,000 USD in theworld. The price could be 10,000 for Beluga or Kaluga.

Le Anh Duc, General Director of Ca Tam Vietnam, as quoted by theVietnam Net online newspaper, said a kilo of sturgeon caviar is sellingat 25 million VND (1,200 USD) in the market. However, some people stillorder one kilo for one week use, which means that they spend 100 millionVND every month on sturgeon caviar.

A report saidthe world needs 3,000 tonnes of sturgeon caviar every year, while thetotal output is just 100 tonnes. The short supply has promptedVietnamese farmers to farm sturgeon.-VNA

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