Enhancing the capacity of enterprises, especially in creating trademarks, is an important requirement for enterprises to meet consumer demand in domestic and export markets, heard a conference in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

The Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee and the Ministry of Industry and Trade organised the event to promote the importance of Vietnamese trademarks in the context of global integration.

Vu Ba Phu, director of the Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that 90 per cent of Vietnamese enterprises are of small and medium size, so they struggle to develop trademarks. This stops Vietnamese brands from finding a position in the domestic market.

To improve competitiveness, Phu suggested enterprises improve their brands, while oraganising effective distribution systems.

Nguyen Thai Dung, deputy general director of Big C Thang Long, said Central Group (Big C’s parent company) Viet Nam has successfully implemented programmes promoting Vietnamese regional specialities and brand names.

The group has also introduced Vietnamese enterprises to the world market, he said.

“When supporting exports of Vietnamese farm produce to world market, we found that Vietnamese products, despite attractive quality and taste, have weak branding and packaging,” he added.

Notably, preliminary treatment and post-harvest preservation have not met strict requirements of markets like Europe, Japan or the US.

Therefore, Central Group Viet Nam has also provided market information and instructed farmers on techniques to produce products suitable with demand in different import markets, Dung said.

Truong Thi Ngoc Anh, vice chairwoman of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee, said the eight-year long campaign ‘Vietnamese people give priority to use Vietnamese goods’ has changed the awareness and consumption behaviour of Vietnamese people.

“Consumers have become more interested in goods which come from Viet Nam, the capacity of Vietnamese enterprises has improved in technology, quality, while prices have fallen to suit consumers,” she said.

Le Viet Nga, deputy director of the Domestic Market Department, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the proportion of Vietnamese goods in supermarkets was up to 70 per cent. At big supermarkets such as Big C and Coopmart, the percentage of Vietnamese goods exceeded 90 per cent.

This is a result of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s effective domestic market development plan in association with the campaign of ‘Vietnamese people use Vietnamese products’.

Some 90 stores sell Vietnamese goods titled ‘Proud of Vietnamese products’ in 52 localities nationwide, Nga said.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has also connected supply and demand to support the consumption of farm produce such as watermelon, lychee, custard apples and dragon fruit in large distribution systems such as Hapro, Coopmart, Lotte and Big C.

In the long run, to better connect supply and demand, Nga suggested enterprises focus on staying updated on investment, upgrading services and design information to meet consumer demand.

Distribution enterprises should prioritise domestically produced goods and support enterprises and farmers in producing goods to meet domestic and export standards. — VNS