Customers buy face masks at Co.opmart Cai Lay in Tien Giang Province on February 2. — Photo courtesy of Saigon Co.op

Saigon Co.op’s retail systems, including Co.opmart, Co.opXtra, Co.op Food, Co.op Smiles, and Cheers, across the country are co-ordinating with face mask and hand-washing liquid and gel manufacturers to ensure they supply around 200,000 masks and over 10,000 sanitisers every day to the market.

The supply will increase further when producers step up production.

Saigon Co.op is also trying its best to ensure the two products are available at all its stores around the country.

Demand for them has increased sharply in the last few days due to coronavirus fears.

Saigon Co.op has supplied more than three million standard face masks of all kinds at regular prices since January 30.

Nguyen Anh Duc, permanent deputy general director of Saigon Co.op, said to meet the sudden increase in demand the entire inventory available with the retail systems and their suppliers has been distributed.

Normally, each Co.opmart and Co.opXtra supermarket sells five to 10 boxes of face mask a day. But now they sell 300-500 boxes within an hour or two despite limiting them to one box per customer.

A surge in demand and the Lunar New Year closure by manufacturers and shortage of raw materials faced by some of them led to a temporary short supply and higher prices in the market last week.

But Saigon Co.op's supermarkets kept the prices of face masks and sanitisers unchanged.

They sell a mask at VND730-VND5,400 depending on the variety, and a bottle of hand sanitiser at VND20,000 (US$0.86) to VND90,000 ($3.8).

A 50-piece box of Co.op Select brand of face masks is priced at VND38,000-48,000 ($1.6-2.08), and Select sanitisers cost VND20,000 for a 90ml bottle. — VNS