Poor design has caused locally-made household products to lose market share. - Photo baomoi.com

HA NOI (VNS)  — Locally-made household plastic products were losing market share to imported products due to their poor designs and R&D activities, reports the Ministry of Trade and Industry

For example, jn just a short period, a high-class brand of Korean plastic appliances has flooded supermarkets. The brand is competing directly with Vietnamese products, reports Doanh Nhan magazine.

Kim Anh, the manager of a restaurant in District 1, HCM City, said Vietnamese products sold at Co.opmart, Big C and Maximark outnumbered imported products, but they still were losing their market share to products from Thailand or Korea.

A representative from Maximark said local products were 20 to 30 per cent cheaper than imports of similar quality but with well-known brand names, imported products still attracted local consumers.

Tran Phuoc An, sales director with Duy Tan Plastics Company, said domestic manufacturers were likely to focus on the low-end of the market. They produced large volumes so that they could offer better prices..

An said that high-end plastic products from overseas relied mainly on marketing and advertising to push their products. He added that many consumers bought imported high-end products because they were convinced they were made from safe materials, which they usually were.

Ho Duc Lam, chairman of Rang Dong Plastic JSC and a member of the Viet Nam Plastics Association, said domestic firms were reluctant to invest more in this segment because of low profit.

He said the association estimated that tens of thousands of billions of dong had been spent on design, plastic moulds and on purchasing new machinery and equipment to make quality products to compete with the foreign imports. However, only a few businesses had enough funds for improvement.

Trinh Chi Cuong, General Director of Dai Dong Tien Plastics Company, said that since 2008 his company had set up an R&D section to produce ecofriendly products every year.

Duy Tan Plastics Company produces at least 10 new products every year. However, most of these new products are improvements on the old design and the firm rarely has a new line of innovative products to compete with the imports.

According to Nguyen Hoang Ngan, General Director of Binh Minh Plastics JSC, the technological innovations made by the local plastic firms had been more than other industries. However, these firms spent mostly on renovated technology and equipment, while the R&D activities remained neglected. — VNS