"Viet Nam has a large potential market for beverages, including alcohol and beer because the nation has a young population and an increased income per capita," . — Photo vietq.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The domestic food production industry has great potential for development but local firms need to revamp production and study consumer trends to compete with foreign rivals, experts say.

At a forum on the food production industry in HCM City last week, Chau Thinh Lan, director of Viet An Food Processing Ltd Company, said in the domestic food production industry, the value of spices, sauces and seasoning production has reached VND4.5 trillion (US$200 million) at present and was expected to reach VND19 trillion in 2020.

He said food consumption trends in Viet Nam's market show that future use would move toward processed foods and away from more traditional food production methods.

In large cities, processed food is available in supermarkets and these would sell at traditional markets while they would appear gradually in small cities.

Candy would be developed in the future, Lan said, and added that the local dairy industry would have many chances of development, especially in health-related dairy products.

Meanwhile, the segment of instant food products still had great potential and small enterprises had ample opportunity to invest in this area. They could exploit this new market by selling instant food at supermarkets, he said.

For the crude food seasonings such as salt, spices, sauces and instant noodles, local and foreign firms have always had new products, and local enterprises should develop diversified products, according to the director.

Lan said a large challenge for the food production industry was a traditional system of supplying domestic raw material for food products.

Le Viet Thang from VianBeco Joint Stock Company said beverage consumption per capita in Viet Nam was too small compared to consumption in other Asian countries such as Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.

"Viet Nam has a large potential market for beverages, including alcohol and beer because the nation has a young population and an increased income per capita," he said.

Thang said that according to BMI Research's report, the growth rate in the turnover from alcoholic beverages in Viet Nam would be 15 per cent to 18 per cent each year from 2016 to 2018, reaching $14 billion in 2018.

However, Thang said that a huge challenge facing the domestic food and beverage industry was research and development (R&D) because it still faced limitations.

Experts said that local enterprises had often put small investments into R&D in the food and beverage sector.

Dang Thi Phuong Ninh, deputy general director of Vissan Company, said there were challenges such as food hygiene and safety, capacity and quality, requiring local enterprises to focus on R&D and revamping their technology. — VNS