Beer companies get a buzz in Vietnam

 

Vietnamese are drinking billions of liters of beer every year, according to statistics from domestic and foreign breweries and importers.

 

Dutch beer company Heineken said it sold 200 million liters in Vietnam last year, making the country the third largest out of the 170 markets worldwide behind the US and France.

 

Vietnam was set to overtake France to become the second biggest market by 2012, and could reach top spot by 2015, it said.

 

The Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (SABECO), a domestic brewery, sold 1.088 billion liters of its Saigon and other beers in 2010.

 

It targets sales of 1.3 billion liters this year and 2 billion liters in 2015.

 

Beer consumption has kept rising in Vietnam regardless of the state of its economy, a SABECO official said.

 

Many breweries are being set up or upgraded and more and more foreign beers are being imported.

 

The Saigon Port customs said imports rose by half over 2009 to more than 1.66 million bottles and cans of liquor, beer, and wine.

 

This year SABECO has opened three new plants and upgraded two existing ones.

 

Vietnam Brewery Limited, which makes BGI, Bivina, and other beers, has upgraded the capacity of its factory in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 12 from 280 million liters a year to 420 million liters.

 

Thailand considers investment in Vietnam

 

As Vietnam continues to remain a magnet for foreign investment, Thailand ’s companies are now starting to look at their neighbour in a different light, with delegations of business executives flocking to the country, reported the Bangkok Post on May 23.

 

The newspaper quoted factors such as Vietnam’s lower wages, a young, ample workforce, consistent GDP growth and less regulation luring foreign businesses to invest, while the rise in Thai wages and other costs make Thai businesses lose some competitiveness in export markets and narrows their capacity to see more opportunities abroad.

 

In order to encourage Thai businesses seek investment opportunities in Vietnam , Thailand 's largest commercial bank, Bangkok Bank, arranged for 30 Thai businesses to visit the southern province of Binh Duong in Vietnam on April 30.

 

Speaking at the visit, vice-president of Runckel & Associates, Soraya Runckel said Binh Duong offers substantial opportunities in manufacturing, retail sales and services. She said the province has many attractions for foreign investors, such as a convenient location and large industrial zones with much of the infrastructure already under construction or completed.

 

Additionally, the province has a number of labour training and human resource management centres, with a system of seven universities including one international university, the Eastern International University.

 

She revealed Thai investors highly appreciate Vietnam ’s economic development over the past 15 years and expressed her belief that the country would continue to maintain its growth rate in the future. She said Vietnam’s young population provides investors with stable, long-term labour resources and low wages, with a large pool of consumers.

 

Moreover, the Vietnamese Government has amended various laws covering investment, enterprise, land, and business competition to make them more favourable to foreign investors.

 

Binh Duong province leaders spoke highly of Thai businesses coming to operate in the province and committed to soon completing construction of infrastructure and simplifying investment procedures while reducing regulations and advising on lending sources.

Thai investment in Vietnam has been located mostly in the Southern Key Economic Zone (SKEZ) including Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Vung Tau, which generates 75 percent of the country's revenue.

 

Imports of frozen meat on the rise

 

Frozen meat imports arriving at HCM City ports in recent months have increased by 20-30 percent over the same period last year as importers take advantage of price hikes in the domestic market.

 

Nguyen Xuan Binh, director of the Animal Health Centre region 6, said 25,905 tonnes of frozen meat were imported in the first four months of the year, mostly poultry meat.

 

The increase in the price of pork and chicken in the domestic market offers excellent opportunities for importers to ship a large volume of meat for higher profits.

 

According to the HCM City Sub-Department of Animal Health, the volume of imported frozen meat that the sub-department controls has sometimes increased 2 to 3 fold compared to normal times.

 

In April, the department supervised nearly 10,000 tonnes of imported meat, including 786 tonnes of cattle meat, 8,219 tonnes of poultry and 456 tonnes of pork, Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper reports.

 

After Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, the price of pork and chicken on the domestic market fell strongly, outselling imports.

 

However, when pork and chicken prices surged strongly in the domestic market, the price of imported meat also increased, although the global price remained unchanged or only slightly increased, bringing huge profits for meat importers.

 

For instance, the global price of chicken wings is about 2,300 USD per tonne currently, with the cost including tax and other expenses at 65,000 VND per kilo when it arrives in Vietnam .

 

However, a kilo of imported chicken wings is being sold for 90,000 VND.

 

Similarity, the cost of a kilo of imported pork is about 60,000 VND including tax and other expenses, while its retail price in the domestic market is 70,000-80,000 VND per kilo.

 

Imported frozen meat is usually 10,000 VND cheaper than that of local meat.

 

Disease causes heavy losses for shrimp farmers

 

Shrimp farmers in coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta are suffering unprecedented losses due to a disease that has infected tiger shrimp in 40,000 hectares of farm area.

 

Pham Hoang Giang, head of the Bac Lieu Aquaculture Department, said microsporidiosis was the main cause of the losses.

 

Right now there is no specific remedy for the disease and farmers can only prevent it by testing the breeding shrimp to make sure they are disease-free before raising them, he said.

 

Over 11,000 hectares of shrimp farms in Bac Lieu have been destroyed, Luong Ngoc Lan, head of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said.

 

In Tra Vinh, about 330 million shrimp in 6,200 hectares of farm area all over the province have died, causing a loss of over VND12 billion.

 

In Soc Trang, 20,000 out of 25,000 hectares of shrimp farms have been destroyed, causing VND1.5 trillion (US$75 million) in losses.

 

Nguyen Van Sang, residing in Lieu Tu Commune, Tran De District of Soc Trang, said he had invested VND50 million ($2,500) in 3 hectares of farming area for tiger shrimp, only to have all his shrimp die after two weeks.

 

Lam Tan Cuong, from My Xuyen District, said his shrimp have died under strange circumstances.

 

“The shrimp all killed themselves by crashing into the pond bank,” he said.

 

Most of the shrimp have died at the age of 20 to 30 days, causing great financial stress to farmers who invested in the improvement of ponds, shrimp breeding and food.

 

Tran Thanh Tuan, an experienced shrimp farmer in Bac Lieu, said each hectare of dead shrimp would cause a loss of VND40 million ($2,000).

 

The Soc Trang People’s Committee is expected to set aside VND20 billion ($1million) to help the farmers continue their farming.

 

The provincial committee has also asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for more support for shrimp farmers.

 

Investment to Cambodia from Vietnam increases

 

Vietnamese investment in Cambodia is on the increase as the two countries have recently signed nine Memorandums of Understanding for investment projects.

 

They were signed during the conference for the Cambodia-Vietnam investment promotion at the Peace Palace. The projects are worth about US$900 million.

 

The largest MoU was signed by Ith Praing, Secretary of State of for the Ministry of Industry Mines and Energy and Nguyen Thanh Bien, Deputy Minister of Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. The deal that’s concerned with a hydro power project on the Lower Sesan II is worth about US$806 million.

 

Aside from the hydro power project, other projects include an iron ore project exploration in Ratanakkiri worth US$30 million, a US$20 million MoU agreement for a cassava plantation by Cam-Viet Rural Development Ltd, and a US$75 million investment project by Star Premier International Ltd. for a sugar cane project.

 

As well, an agreement of investment for a rubber plantation project by Hoang Anh Oyadav Co., Ltd and an agreement by Indochina Green JSC Co., Ltd. for a carbon credit project were also signed at the conference.

 

Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said in his speech that foreign trade statistics in 2010 have shown that exports from Cambodia to Vietnam amounted to US$276 million while imports from Vietnam to Cambodia amounted to US$1,552 million.

 

“Our trade deficit is growing due to consumer goods with reasonable prices and quality from Vietnam started to be popular in the Cambodian market compared to products from other neighboring countries,” said Cham Prasidh.

 

Speaking at the conference, tycoon Kith Meng, president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, said that last year, two-way trade between the two countries increased by 37 percent to more than US$1.8 billion. He added that in the first quarter of this year, trade was over US$600 million and it expected to increase to US$2.5 billion for 2011.

 

According to Vietnamese data from 2009 to April 2011, Vietnam invested in 87 projects in Cambodia amounting to over US$2 billion, Commerce Minister Prasidh said, adding that he expects the figure will increase in 2011.

 

According to Doan Nguyen Duc, Chair-man of the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, a diversified group with interests in real estate, hydropower, rubber, and mining, Cambodia has a lot of business potential for Vietnamese investors to consider.

 

He added there are some comparative advantages such as having many international trade borders, a good relationship between the two governments, good mechanisms to encourage businesses, and low labor cost sare the elements that Vietnam investors would consider.

 

“The comparative advantages have encouraged Hoang Ang Gia Lai to invest more in Cambodia,” said Doan Nguyen Duc.

 

Speaking at the conference, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said that he would like to encourage more investors to consider business opportunities in Cambodia. Furthermore, he also wants to see the existing Vietnamese investors in Cambodia expand their capital investment to build better economic cooperation.

 

Less meat imports proposed to help farmers

 

Vietnam’s Animal Husbandry Department is calling for a reduction of meat imports to prevent local livestock farms from going bust in this season of low demand.

 

The proposed import cut will help stabilize local meat prices and ensure decent incomes for farmers, Hoang Kim Giao, head of the department, told the Thoi bao Kinh Te Saigon (Saigon Economic Time).

 

Demand for pork between now and August is traditionally down, so if supply stays at the current level, pork prices will slump, he said, adding a price decline would hurt the livestock farming industry.

 

Giao denied news reports that a low supply of domestic pork had sent prices skyrocketing. “I do affirm that there is no short supply. Transport of domestic pork has been disrupted as livestock disease outbreaks have been detected in some provinces.”

 

He said his department was considering giving livestock farmers good breeders and vet drugs and helping them clean up their farms so as to improve the quality of their products, instead of providing loan interest support.

 

The department is working with other relevant agencies to find ways to prevent meat prices from surging, he said, noting that any meat price hike might lead animal feed producers to raise prices of their products though world material prices are decreasing.

 

Agricultural sector urged to boost exports

 

Domestic agricultural producers must boost exports to help reduce the country's trade deficit, said economist Pham Do Chi.

 

Chi said if the sector did not increase production and foreign sales, the country's trade deficit would reach US$15 billion this year.

 

According to the General Statistics Office, in the first four months of this year, the country's trade deficit reached about $5 billion, up nearly 6 per cent against the same period last year. There were $4 billion worth of imports from mainland China alone.

 

Chi said the quality of Viet Nam's rice this year was better than that exported by Thailand to Hong Kong. Furthermore, Vietnamese rice was cheaper, he said.

 

Chi added that Vietnamese rice had taken an increasing slice of the Hong Kong market and was making in-roads into the coastal areas of mainland China where incomes were relatively high. He suggested Vietnamese producers focus on exporting white rice to this market. He said lower quality rice should be exported to the Philippines, India and Africa.

 

According to the Agromonitor agency, in March this year, Viet Nam exported 60,000 tonnes of rice to China. It said Chinese firms were looking to purchase more competitively priced rice from Viet Nam. However, he said Vietnamese firms had encountered payment problems with exports to China.

 

Chi said exports should be supported by banks. In addition, more research on demand in China should be conducted, he added.

 

However, Dr Tran Du Lich from the National Advisory Council for Monetary and Financial Policies said that though exports had increased they should be considered in terms of output requirements and the selling price.

 

Viet Nam's farm produce was mostly exported to its neighbours. About 80 per cent of Vietnamese dragon fruits was exported to China alone. However, he said it was important to diversify exports to ensure price stability.

 

Japan and South Korea were also major importers of Vietnamese agricultural products. Pham Hai Long, general director of Agrex Sai Gon Foodstuffs Joint Stock Company, said the three main reasons for the popularity of Vietnamese agricultural exports were taste, cleanliness and attractiveness. Meanwhile, seafood enterprises have been now checking radioactivity levels in raw materials for processing.

 

Long said orders at his company in the first two months of this year had increased by 30-40 per cent. Helping to boost exports was the country's favourable climate, he added.

 

Long said upheaval in the global economy and natural disasters had helped to boost exports to neighbouring markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

 

The Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that in March, 45,000 tonnes of rice were exported to the Philippines.

 

In the first quarter of this year, rice exports increased by 500,000 tonnes compared with the first three months of last year.

 

Vietnam mulls funds to finance more housing projects 

 

The Vietnamese government is considering a construction ministry proposal to set up three real estate funds in an effort to increase capital for the property market.

 

At a meeting on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai ordered the Central Steering Committee to promptly finalize the Housing Development Strategy draft submitted by the construction ministry.

 

Hai does not want to delay the country mobilizing capital through different channels to finance more property projects, especially low-income housing.

 

In the draft, the Ministry of Construction suggests the establishment of a housing development fund, a housing savings fund and a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

 

Deputy Minister Nguyen Tran Nam said the current property market mainly relies on real estate firms’ capital, bank loans, and funds mobilized from homebuyers.

 

But Nam said the three channels were not enough, and thus, the proposed funds would help.

 

According to the proposal, the housing development fund will be set up by each province and its capital comes from the sale or lease of state-owned buildings in that province.

 

As for the housing savings fund, the government will supply capital to it at the beginning and then people wanting to buy homes in the future will contribute to it. Low-income housing developers will be eligible to assess soft loans at the fund.

 

The REIT will raise capital from the public by issuing fund certificates on stock exchanges. The fund will not only help construct and trade buildings but also provide property loans.

 

Gold consumption reaches 19.2 tonnes in Q1

 

Viet Nam's gold consumption increased by 2 per cent, reaching 19.2 tonnes during the first quarter of 2011, according to a World Gold Council report released earlier this month.

 

Demand for gold was valued at US$878 million, a 28 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

 

Jewellery demand increased by 7 per cent (around 5 tonnes) during the first quarter while investment demand went up by 1 per cent, reaching 14.2 tonnes.

 

Domestic gold prices hovered at a two-week high of VND37.5 million ($1,829) per tael yesterday, an increase of VND120,000 per tael against last Friday. (One tael is equivalent to 1.2 ounces.)

 

Gold dealers quoted purchase/selling prices at VND37.41-37.53 million per tael.

 

The appearance of impure gold alloys (capable of cheating most purity testing equipment as well as skilled goldsmiths) on the market over the past five weeks had jewellery companies scrambling to minimise losses.

 

"Although wolfram integrated gold alloys have appeared in many other countries for years, it's its first time in Viet Nam," said Phan Truong Thi, head of the Precious Gemstones and Jewellery Institute.

 

Some gold traders reported gold bullion sales slipping by 30-50 per cent during the last four weeks. Gold traders have been advised to cut out gold alloys for testing.

 

According to the World Gold Council, the global demand for gold during the first quarter of 2011 increased by 11 per cent to 981.3 tonnes valued at $43.7 billion, an increase of almost 40 per cent. The quarterly average gold price hit a new record of $1,386.27 per ounce, its eighth consecutive year-on-year increase.

 

Continued strong demand for gold was driven by investors, jewellery buyers and central banks due to uncertainty regarding the US economy and the state of the dollar, ongoing European debt concerns, global inflationary pressures and continued tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, the council said.

 

While the demand for gold had been rising, gold supply has declined by 4 per cent to 872.2 tonnes due to a sharp increase in purchasing by the official sector as well as a fall in the supply of recycled gold, which dropped by 6 per cent to 347.5 tonnes.

 

HCM City hosts lighting, home decor expos

 

Wind and solar powered lighting as well as other environmentally friendly products will be presented at two international exhibitions held simultaneously in HCM City later this year.

 

Organisers said at a press conference yesterday that the exhibitions would showcase the latest lighting, furniture and interior decoration products and solutions from 250 foreign and local companies.

 

The Viet Nam Lighting Exhibition and the Viet Nam Home Fashion&Decor 2011 will be held from December 15-17 at the Sai Gon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7.

 

The exhibitions aimed to create opportunities to increase brand awareness, establish relationships with new partners and buyers, receive national recognition for products and services and identify latest trends in the market place, organisers said.

 

Stanley Chu, chairman of Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd, said Viet Nam was well known as one of the fastest growing countries in the world with continuously high GDP growth and huge foreign direct investments, especially in the real estate sector.

 

With increasing urbanization and the government's long-term plans for energy conservation, demand was set to grow for lighting, furniture and decorative products for various sectors including housing, infrastructure, commercial complexes and the hospitality industry, he said.

 

Viet Nam Lighting 2011 will present products and services of decorative lighting products and technology, electrical lighting machines technology and interior lighting designing technology.

 

It will also cover the most comprehensive lighting topics such as architectural lighting, green lighting, commercial lighting, decorative lighting, household lighting, LED/OLED lighting, outdoor lighting, advertising lighting&signs, wind/solar power lighting, lighting design and lighting accessories.

 

Dang Kim Giao, Ministry of Construction's director of Construction Information Technology Center, said the event was a special opportunity for domestic and foreign enterprises to co-operate, transfer technology and strengthen investment and trade promotion as well.

 

The Viet Nam Home Fashion&Decor 2011, on the other hand, will showcase top quality home furnishings, office furniture, kitchen furniture, upholstered and non-upholstered furniture, bedroom furniture, as well as decorative items and designs for every room in a house.

 

With the urbanization rate in Viet Nam forecast to increase to 45.2 per cent from the current 27 per cent by 2020, the furniture market was entering a golden age, organisers said.

 

Besides, a series of industry summit, networking event, architect and designer activities and special showcases will be held to provide more in-depth exchange and networking.

 

The exhibitions are organized by Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd in collaboration with AFC International Exhibition Fair Corp, one of the leading companies in the field in Viet Nam. It is also the organiser of Viet Nam's largest building materials exhibition, Vietbuild.

 

The organisers are supported by the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Viet Nam Lighting Association, the Viet Nam Science and Technology Academy, and the Viet Nam Union of Architects.

 

Argentine firms explore Vietnamese market

 

The Embassy of Viet Nam in Argentina and the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Production of the Argentine Republic recently co-organised a business conference in Argentina's capital city Buenos Aires with the aim of attracting investors to the Vietnamese market.

 

The conference attracted around 100 Argentine firms from various sectors including customs and commerce consultancy, electrical goods, agriculture, wine, food and tourism.

 

At the conference, Nguyen Van Dao, Vietnamese Ambassador to Argentina, presented the principal features of the development of Viet Nam's economy and discussed policies with foreign investors.

 

Soc Trang to host 2nd Rice Festival

 

The second Vietnam Rice Festival will be held in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang from November 8-14 this year.

 

A variety of events will take place during the festival, including seminars, trade fairs and cultural exchanges.

 

The festival aims to honour Vietnamese rice growers, boost trade promotion and encourage cultural exchange.

 

The 1st Vietnam Rice Festival, entitled “For the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers”, was held in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang in November 2009.

 

Dong Thap farmer fishes his way to snakehead success

 

When they got married and started a new life together, Phan Van Chung and his wife received a small gold ring and a rickety boat from their families.

 

Natives of An Giang, the couple moved to Dong Thap, another province in the Cuu Long (Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta), to try and earn their living there.

 

The couple did odd jobs as hired labourers as well as fishing, saving enough money to start a fish farm of their own.

 

"We had nothing except empty hands when we arrived in Phu Hiep (a commune in the province)," recalled Chung.

 

That was fifteen years ago.

 

Now, Chung is a well-known success story who has been awarded the title of prominent farmer in the province for several years.

 

Every year, his farm supplies the market with hundreds of tonnes of snakehead fish, earning billions of dong. The intrepid entrepreneur takes the risk of breeding and selling the fish during the off season to get higher prices.

 

Usually, farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta cultivate the snakehead fish from September to March, but Chung does this between April and August.

 

In fact, he even has his fish insured. Each month he pays around VND10 million (US$483) to protect his family business that now extends to nine ponds on four ha of land near the Tram Chim National Forest.

 

Chung says that he has never suffered a loss over the last 10 years, thanks to his knowledge of fish breeding that he gained from neighbours and agricultural experts.

 

Last year, he invested VND2.5 billion ($120,000) on developing 300,000 fish fry, and after six months, he had harvested more than 150 tonnes of the fish. After all expenses, he earned a profit of over VND600 million ($29,000).

 

His fish farm is a big consumer of saltwater fish that is used to feed his snakehead fish, creating jobs for many people in the locality.

 

Besides providing jobs on and off his farm, Chung also supplies fish fry to farmers in the area as well as neighbouring provinces.

 

Chung began breeding the snakehead fish in 1995. He discussed with his wife a plan to spend VND15 million ($724) on dredging a 2,000sq.m pond and breed 35,000 fish fry.

 

More than 10 months later, he sold all the fish and collected more than VND100 million ($4,800). He continued farming the fish, this time breeding 70,000. The harvest fetched him VND140 million in profit.

 

"It was more than I expected. I realised that breeding snakehead fish can be very profitable, so I decided to expand the farm," Chung said.

 

From 2,000sq.m, he expanded the farm to two ha, and later to the current four ha with nine ponds.

 

Besides the fish ponds, the family has bought many more ha of land, and Chung proudly tells curious visitors and admiring neighbours about the great changes that have happened in his life 15 years after he moved to Dong Thap.

 

HCM City eyes 6% agricultural growth

 

The ongoing Agriculture and Rural Development Programme in HCM City targets an increase of more than 6 per cent in farm output this year, an official said.

 

The programme, run by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and various associations and organisations, will stop rice farming on around 1,000ha of low-yield lands, replacing it with vegetables, flowers, bonsai, and aquaculture, according to Le Hong Hoanh, deputy director of the department.

 

Speaking at a recent conference, she said by 2015 this would increase to 3,500-4,000 hectares.

 

It would continue to help six communes participating in a pilot rural development programme meet the development criteria set by the Government by 2012, she said.

 

It would also implement clean water and environmental programmes, equipping 90 per cent of breeding farms with wastewater-treatment facilities, she said.

 

In the last five years, the programme has enabled more than 30,000 rural households to get loans to build toilets and bio-gas plants.

 

In the period, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries grew at an average of 5 per cent a year.