The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of the food and beverage (F&B) towards digital transformation, which provided bright prospects for the industry when economic activities returned to normal.

The F&B industry has been robust since the beginning of this year, posting two-digit growth in the first quarter.

Statistics from payment platform Payoo showed that the F&B revenue in January – March increased by 1.5 times over the last quarter of 2021, with the number of transactions jumping by 24 per cent.

Riding and delivery platform Gojek also recorded a sharp increase in F&B orders in Ha Noi and HCM City. F&B orders via its app GoFood doubled in the first three months of this year over the same period last year. Ha Noi saw a growth rate of 220 per cent in the number of F&B orders.

On average, each user on the GoFood platform placed one order every five days in the first quarter. Milk tea was the most ordered drink in both major cities. Other popular dishes were Vietnamese, such as chicken rice, rolls and noodles.

The F&B industry is recovering rapidly, and users are changing their habits towards placing orders via online platforms and using cashless payment.

Le Nguyen Ngoc Dung, director of Gofood, said that more and more people were turning to e-commerce platforms, adding that this trend continued to be maintained in the new normal.

Payoo forecasts that the F&B industry will continue to grow in the second quarter as the pandemic is put under control in Viet Nam, coupled with the Government’s demand stimulus policies, especially in tourism.

Statistics from the General Statistics Office showed that the number of domestic tourists was estimated to total 26.1 million in the first quarter, which has significantly benefited the F&B industry.

Mordor Intelligience Inc. forecast that Viet Nam’s F&B industry would expand at 8.65 per cent annually in 2021-26.

Securities company VNDirect also predicted that the F&B industry will proliferate in 2022, from 10-12 per cent, with the major impetus coming from the reopening of in-person services and the recovery of domestic consumption.

Market research firm BMI pointed out that the spending of Vietnamese households would be on an increasing trend in 2022-25. — VNS