VietNamNet Bridge - The first warning about the ‘Thai goods threat’ was given two years ago when Thai groups took over a number of retail chains in Vietnam. 

Watchdog agencies said they are alarmed about the increase in the trade deficit with Thailand.

Vietnamese manufacturers in the past remained unruffled about the warnings. They believed there was no need to worry about the presence of Thai products in the domestic market because Vietnamese products were good enough.

But Thai products have been threading their way to every corner of the domestic market, step by step replacing Chinese products, which once flooded the market. 

The trade deficit in the first eight months of the year reached $3.5 billion, an increase of 15.6 percent over the same period last year. Of the top 36 product items Vietnam imported from Thailand, 22 could be made domestically.

The chair of a Vietnamese owned food company commented that Thais have been very professional in marketing and entering the Vietnamese market. He was surprised when seeing a package of Thail-made dried fruit with Vietnamese words ‘Trai cay Thai cang an cang khoai’ (Thai fruits – the more you eat the more you like).

He commented that with the professional market development strategy, Thail products appear to have higher quality than Vietnamese and Chinese products, while the selling prices are reasonable.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), the trade deficit in the first eight months of the year reached $3.5 billion, an increase of 15.6 percent over the same period last year. Of the top 36 product items Vietnam imported from Thailand, 22 could be made domestically. 

Nguyen Lam Vien, president and general director of Vinamit, a dried fruit manufacturer, said the problem is the media strategy. 

He said that articles in local newspapers in 2014-2015 about some Vietnamese food products which could not meet quality standards helped Thai products enter the Vietnamese market. Vietnamese consumers think Thai products have higher safety and quality though they don’t have sufficient information.

Vien admitted that Vinamit’s sales have been adversely affected by the presence of Thai products of the same types on supermarket shelves.

He stressed that Vietnamese manufacturers won’t succeed if they only provide safe, high-quality products at reasonable prices and moderate media campaigns. 

He said Thais now hold important links of the distribution chains. Many Vietnamese enterprises have given up production and shifted to distribute Thai products to enjoy a profit of 20-30 percent. 

Luong Van Vinh from My Hao Cosmetics also admitted that his company is weak at marketing and branding.

Nguyen Dinh Tung, general director of Vina T&T, a fruit exporter, said that flood of Thai fruits in Vietnam is ‘worrying’. He called on state agencies to create technical barriers to restrict the imports.

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Chi Mai