Workers of the Hai Ha-Kotobuki Company pack confectionery products for the upcoming Tet holiday. Made-in-Viet Nam products accounts for 90 per cent of the domestic market. — VNA/VNS Photo Ha Thai

HA NOI  (Biz Hub) — Locally-produced products are gradually gaining a firm foothold in the domestic confectionery market as consumers switch their preferences from foreign to domestic items for the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

Domestically-produced items, reportedly, account for 90 per cent of the domestic confectionery market, even though foreign companies have accelerated their market penetration.

The rise of imported confectionery with high quality, beautiful packaging in the domestic market has forced local companies to innovate, seek new technologies and improve productivity and product quality to meet the demands of local consumers.

In particular, Vietnamese businesses have sought to understand local consumer sentiment as they carry out research and develop new flavours to attract customers.

Currently, some of the well-known domestic confectionery producers are witnessing a boom in demand for their products in the run-up to the Tet holiday.

In recent years, the market for festival gift baskets has been increasingly dominated by brands such as Trang An, Kinh Do, Bibica, Hai Ha and Pham Nguyen.

Nguyen Xuan Luan, deputy general director of the Kinh Do Corporation, said that, as of January 6, his company had reached its sales target of 4,500 tonnes for the Tet festival.

These days, Kinh Do is operating at full capacity as the orders from supermarkets have increased in anticipation of higher demand before the New Year festival.

Along with large-scale investments for upgrading the quality and design of its products, Kinh Do Corporation has focused on taking advantage of its distribution channels throughout the country to extend the reach of its direct sales activities, as well as distribute products to rural areas to meet consumer demand for the Lunar New Year, reports online newspaper Dien dan doanh nghiep (Business Forum).

One representative of a famous confectionery producer in HCM City predicted that confectionery consumption would increase strongly as the Tet holiday approaches, adding that his company had raised production capacity by an additional 50 per cent from the previous target.

Tran Thuy Hoa, head of the technology department of the Ha Noi Confectionery Company, noted that this year, the total production of cakes and various kinds of dried and candied fruits was expected to go up to 500 tonnes, 6-8 per cent higher from the same period last year.

She said the figure strongly reflected consumer trends seen earlier this year.

Nguyen Quoc Hoang, deputy general director of Bien Hoa Confectionery Corporation (Bibica), added that nearly 1,300 tonnes of different varieties of cakes, candies and candied fruits, priced at various ranges, are being offered to local consumers since late 2013.

This year, the company's production capacity rose by 10 per cent.

According to several experts in the retail industry, this year, a struggling economy has led to a significant decline in the purchasing power of consumers.

However, professional manufacturers and reputable brands are still the top choices of consumers. — VNS