The Vietnamese High-Quality Goods Award will be conferred on 592 firms this year.

They were selected from a list of 805 companies based on surveys of 16,000 households in 12 major provinces and cities by the Business Association of High Quality Vietnamese Products.

The nominees were then screened by authorised local agencies and relevant industries and checked for transparency of information before the 592 were chosen for the prestigious award given away by the HCM City-based association.

This is the 21^st year it is organising the awards programme.

Hoàng Trọng, an advisor to the programme this year, said the survey this year also revealed new market information that would be useful for businesses and management agencies.

For instance, it found that 92 per cent of respondents mainly use Vietnamese goods, but only 78 per cent “like” them.

This indicates that Vietnamese producers fail to meet consumers’ expectations, providing them with a challenge but offering an opportunity for imports, he said.

The survey also found that consumers lay great stress on hygiene and food safety, with a fourth of the respondents concerned about the use of banned substances in production and preservation and 17 per cent worrying about poor-quality raw materials, he said.

But worryingly, despite knowing some of the products are unsafe, consumers still bought and used them because there are no substitutes in the market, he said.

Modern retail channels play an increasingly important role though traditional channels still dominate the market with a 60 per cent share, he said.

Shopping through modern channels has increased since increased incomes and concerns about quality push consumers to supermarkets and hypermarkets.

Vu Kim Hanh, chairwoman of the association, said the association would launch a new set of quality standards based on both local quality norms and the standards adopted in developed countries like the US, Germany, Japan, and Singapore.

She called on businesses to adopt the new standards to safeguard consumers’ interests and improve their own competitiveness.

The awards ceremony will be held at the White Palace Convention Centre in Phu Nhuan District on March 2. — VNS