Vietnamese enterprises bring goods into supermarkets - Part 3: Achievements on the road with many obstacles

	Agricultural products are still struggling to enter supermarkets
	Seafood products struggle to land on shelves
	Imported meat with cheap price: Consumers suspect quality

Lenger's clean clam products are widely sold in Vinmart supermarkets. Photo: H.Diu.

Effort to do branding

Speaking about the difficult process to enter supermarkets, Dang Toan Nang, Director of Domestic Sales of Lenger Vietnam Seafood Co., Ltd. said, before 2014, enterprises mainly produced exports, but the company leaders decided to expand further into the domestic market.

"At that time, although the product was exported a lot, the product had no brand in the domestic market and was not yet known among consumers. So we were rejected when approaching supermarkets,” said Nang.

Knowing this, Lenger Vietnam Seafood Company at that time sought to promote the brand and connect supply capacity. The company had to offer, advertise and seek partners at many fairs and exhibitions of associations and trade promotion centers in Hanoi. Thanks to the perseverance, the clean clam product of the company is known by consumers and businesses, while supermarkets have contacted businesses to negotiate.

According to the representative of Lenger Vietnam Company, the process of successfully getting products into supermarkets is not simple. After negotiating, supermarkets sent representatives to the survey site, on factory tours and production processes, checking inspection documents, business licenses, and safety certificates.

Businesses must provide sufficient requirements and commit to the right process and new standards are approved. The supermarket side also does not cause difficulties and disadvantages to businesses on discounts and cost terms. Thanks to that, Lenger Vietnam's clam products are almost exclusively sold at partner supermarkets such as Vinmart and Qmart.

The above example shows that the most difficult part for Vietnamese enterprises is themselves. When businesses build a brand and are known to consumers, going to the supermarket will be much easier. Not only that, businesses also take the initiative in negotiating, proactively make terms of cooperation, to avoid the disadvantages of suppression, causing difficulties for the supermarket.

Also on this issue, Duong Thi Thuy Huong, Deputy Director of Thien Bang Company, said that enterprises themselves must be proactive in investing in equipment to improve product quality to meet market demand. In addition, it is necessary to actively seek to diversify customers, avoid relying on a supermarket to not suffer the consequences as the case of Big C abruptly suspending import of garments of Vietnamese enterprises recently.

Always be passionate

Getting to the supermarket is difficult but it is also not easy to keep a stand in the supermarket. BigC supermarket suddenly announcing it would temporarily suspend the import of Vietnamese garments from the beginning of July was an expensive lesson. Although the supermarket side has explained the reason was due to restructuring the industry and looking for higher quality goods, stopping the sudden importation, without prior notice, whether or not the law is correct or the contract of BigC showed "non-market" in supermarket operations. This case was only fine when the Ministry of Industry and Trade entered to resolve.

Thus, no matter what the cause, the suppliers providing goods are suffering from sitting under business activities with supermarkets. Economic expert Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngo Tri Long stated that businesses themselves need to make efforts to improve their competitiveness. Enterprises cannot rely on the kindness of foreign partners because they have invested in business, the first goal must be profit.

“Only when Vietnam's products are more powerful, will new foreign businesses not be able to replace those of other countries. If domestic manufacturers offer good, affordable products, surely the product will stand firm in the market, take advantage of the strength of home to develop," said Ngo Tri Long.

In addition, it is also important for businesses to pay attention to contract terms when cooperating with supermarkets. According to lawyer Tu Dinh Anh, Director of Minh - Tri Law Company, in the contract between enterprises and supermarkets, it is necessary to show clearly the information related to supply time, price, and payment method, the agreements must be very strict so that if there is a dispute, it can be based on that.

"The most important thing for businesses to protect themselves and avoid losses is that the enterprises themselves need to consult and understand the details of the contract to be more proactive in responding to possibilities. Building a contract with strict and detailed commitments will help businesses protect their rights by the commitments made in the contract. Specifically, enterprises can provide conditions when participating in goods supply in supermarkets which need to state the conditions required before the supermarket wants to stop or terminate the contract of supply of goods must be notified in advance, clearly stating the cause from there to avoid the most damage to the business,” added Tu Dinh Anh.

Vietnam to boost exports via retail channels Billions of dollars worth of Vietnam’s products are exported via large global retail chains, but these products ...

Experts also said that management agencies need to strengthen the orientation of business thinking for manufacturing enterprises, effectively organize closed chains from production to distribution. These issues show, for the road to the supermarket system of Vietnamese goods, there is a lot of work to do and many problems to solve. But this is must be achieved because of the long-term goal for the general development of the economy.