HCMC works with businesses on goods preparation for Tet holiday

The HCMC Department of Industry and Trade on November 20 worked with major businesses in HCMC on goods preparation for the upcoming Tet holiday as well as solutions to ensure supply and stabilize pork prices in the holiday.
Consumers’ pork demand is still high despite price hike trend (Photo: SGGP)
Consumers’ pork demand is still high despite price hike trend (Photo: SGGP)
At the meeting, most of businesses affirmed that goods preparation for Tet holiday has been on schedule. They are able to increase the volume of subsidized goods by 10-13 percent compared to plan.
In the group of poultry meat and egg, San Ha Company’s director Pham Thi Ngoc Ha said that the company is able to increase chicken supply by 30 percent. She proposed the city to put industrial chicken in the list of subsidized commodities. According to her, this type of chicken is ready for slaughtering after 35 days of breeding and its price is stable.
Ba Huan Company’s representative Pham Thi Kim Em affirmed that the company can raise poultry meat and egg volume by 30 percent compared to plan. Saigon Agriculture Corporation (Sagri) said that it would hike subsidized pork by 10 percent in the Tet holiday.
In the meantime, Phan Van Dung, deputy director general of Vissan Company, said that the company planed to import 2,500 tons of frozen pork. So far it has stored 2,000 tons. However, consumers are still in the habit of consuming fresh pork so import product has been mainly for food processing.
Distribution systems such as Saigon Co.op, Big C, Aeon and Aeon-Citimart are now working with suppliers to ensure supply of fresh products including pork, beef, poultry, vegetable and seafood in the Tet holiday.
Ms. Nguyen Huynh Trang, deputy director of the city Department of Industry and Trade, said that for the first time the city will not fix the price of pork in two months before and after Tet holiday. The price will accord market price so that businesses can take the initiative in supply sources. That does not mean that the city lets pork price free, businesses have been required to always keep selling price 5-10 percent lower than market price.
Currently, pork supply still meets demand but prices have highly surged compared to the same period last year.
The Industry and Trade Department has implemented solutions to supervise the market of pork and substitute products such as beef and poultry. It will coordinate with relevant sides to mobilize restaurants and hotels to use frozen pork for processing food, producers to use chicken for making Chung and Tet cakes and residents to shift into consuming substitute products to reduce pressure on pork.
Supply of other necessary items such as confectionery, poultry meat, egg, rice, sugar, cooking oil, beer and beverage is abundant with stabilized prices.
In case distribution firms face goods shortage or suppliers fail to provide goods according to plan, they must report to the Department of Industry and Trade to solve the issue and prevent goods scarcity from rocketing prices and destabilizing Tet market.

Other news