Many businesses in HCM City have stockpiled Tet goods with the amount increasing by 10-15 percent against last year. As planned, food and foodstuff businesses alone are expected to meet 30-40 percent of the city’s consumer demand.

Pham Thanh Hung, deputy director of Ba Huan Co, Ltd says that his company releases up to 2 million eggs per day to the local market.

Nguyen Ngoc An, deputy director of Vissan Company, says that the company’s meat reserves have increased by 10-15 percent, excluding frozen meat, while processed food has risen 15 percent.

According to the Livestock Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), husbandry product supply has recently increased by 8-10 percent in terms of quantity. Currently, the price of pork hovers around VND58,000 per kilo and might rise to VND60,000-62,000 per kilo during Tet.

In 2011, Vietnam imported 107,000 tonnes of meat, up 30.5 percent compared to the previous year. A representative from Co.op Mart supermarket chain said that HCM City has 22 Co.op Mart supermarkets and 26 Co.op Mart food stores which have participated in the city’s price stabilization programme. In addition, other provinces and cities have been assigned to stabilize prices for Co.op Mart branches in their localities.

However, many businesses are worried that there will be a scarcity of dried and seafood products. In HCM City, the price of seafood has increased by VND1,000-25,000 per kilo, up 4.5 percent. Dried shrimps in various sizes rose by VND50,000-100,000 per kilo (8-23 percent).

A representative from LotteMart says that 80 percent of cookies and beverages are locally made, with prices up 10-25 percent compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the prices of soft drinks increased by 2-25 percent, depending on the type, wine up 3 -20 percent and beer up 10 percent.

Huynh Huu Tuan, a manager from Citimart Binh Thanh, predicts that purchasing power will not be higher and there will not be major fluctuations in prices during Tet. However, in many markets in HCM City, confectionaries imported from China are displayed in huge volumes.

(VOV)