Retail system planned for distribution to rural buyers

The HCM City-based Business Studies and Assistance Centre has introduced a programme designed to develop a retail system for domestic goods in Vietnam’s rural areas.

The programme was announced at seminar to discuss ways to boost the sales of made-in-Vietnam goods in Hanoi on January 7.

Any Vietnamese enterprise that joins the programme would: enjoy an enhanced appearance of their goods, join a distribution system to remote regions, and build the habit of using made-in-Vietnam goods and providing high-quality goods to rural customers.

This would help them sell directly to rural customers or 70 percent of the domestic retail market.

The centre’s sales expert, Nguyen Duy Thien, said: “A huge number of papa or mama shops are in rural Vietnam but the distribution system is not effective there.”

The result was the domination of low-quality and counterfeit goods, he said.

Hanoi Supermarket Association chairman Vu Vinh Phu agreed with this assessment and said it stemmed from a lack of knowledge about the goods used by rural people.

“The rural area is still a large market for Vietnamese producers and retailers,” he said.

Business Studies and Assistance Centre director Vu Kim Hanh said the programme would help producers to deal with challenges arising from the global economic crisis.

The programme was part of the effort to provide Vietnamese goods for Vietnamese consumers from the country’s club of high-quality producers.

The club’s slogan was “Vietnamese customers use Vietnamese goods.”

Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Nguyen Cam Tu said the ministry supported the programme and would complete policies to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese consumers to use Vietnamese goods.

He also advised Vietnamese producers to develop a retail infrastructure to ensure the direct sale of their goods to Vietnamese.

They must improve their manufacture, model and quality of the goods to both meet the demands of the consumers and change their consumption habits, he said.

If Vietnamese producers were successful in developing their goods for the domestic market, they would prove competitive.

Many producers have not forgotten the rural market.

Tan Hiep Phat Group CEO Tran Qui Thanh said his company made beverages for rural customers and planned new products.

Saigon Paper Corporation CEO Huynh Van Ro said the rural dwellers in southern Vietnam knew the corporation’s issue as a trademark of Saigon.

The seminar on January 7 was organised by the centre, the Marketing Newspaper and the Club of Vietnam’s high-quality goods producers. (VNS)