VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese goods have been exported to many countries, but they still find it easy to enter overseas supermarkets.

The ambition of Hung Vuong

The 2013 extraordinary shareholders’ meeting of Hung Vuong JSC approved the company’s plan to issue 30 million shares to a foreign strategic partner – an enterprise from Singapore.

The 30 million shares have the total face value of VND300 billion, while Hung Vuong shares have been traded at VND25,600 per share. Foreign investors now hold 10 percent of stakes of Hung Vuong.

The noteworthy thing of the deal, according to Duong Ngoc Minh, President of Hung Vuong, is that Hung Vuong chose a Singaporean finance institution as the strategic partner partially because it has good relation with a big supermarket chain in Indonesia.

Minh hopes that by cooperating with the supermarket chain, Hung Vuong’s products would have the opportunities to be available in Indonesia, the market with 230 million consumers.

Also according to Minh, not only targeting Indonesian market, Hung Vuong would also work out with the owners of the US H&T supermarket chain on the sale of Hung Vuong’s products at its system of 16 markets in the US.

The markets reportedly have the turnover of $700 million a year from the imports from Vietnam, including farm produce, food, consumer goods, rice, spices, coffee and milk. About 30-40 percent of the product items available there are from Vietnam.

The US market now consumes 25 percent of Hung Vuong’s catfish export turnover.

Like Hung Vuong, many other Vietnamese manufacturers have been gradually approaching overseas supermarkets. Truong Thanh, a wooden furniture manufacturer, has brought its products to the supermarkets in the US, the UK and Europe. Minh Long pottery and porcelain products have been available at German supermarkets. Vinamit’s dried farm produce have been selling well in China.

However, a lot of Vietnamese products, though being available at the supermarkets in the US or the UK, cannot bear their original names. This means that Vietnamese goods still don’t have the opportunities to conquer consumers’ hearts with their names.

Seeking the bridges

Tim Kelbel, Vice President of Kroger, said the group is seeking the partners who can provide suitable products to be sold at Kroger’s retail network. Vietnamese enterprises have also been told that they can provide raw materials to Kroger’s factories.

The group reportedly plans to import $5-6 billion worth of products, of which 4-5 percent would be from Vietnam. It currently buys $50 million worth of Vietnamese coffee every year, and other Vietnamese products as well, but only through intermediaries. However, it plans to do trade with Vietnamese companies directly.

Kroger has been known as the second biggest retail chain in the US, next to Wal-Mart, with the total turnover of $96.8 billion in 2012 and the expected figure of $100 billion in 2013.

Vietnamese manufacturers have also been trying to penetrate foreign markets by cooperating with big foreign retail groups such as South Korean Lotte and German Metro Cash & Carry.

A representative from Metro Cash & Carry said German consumers have responded well to Vietnamese goods, especially food products. A big amount of Vietnamese goods has also been put on sale at Lotte network in South Korea.

Kim Chi