July 28, 2006

US chicken slowly gains control of Vietnamese market

Even though there is only one trading company importing US chicken in Hanoi, the product is gaining popularity in the city, sales manager Thu Ha at Intimex, a Vietnamese supermarket said.

The Nguyen Hoang Duong Trading company has been the sole importer of American chicken in Hanoi for the last 7-8 months., Working with Gold Kitchen, a major poultry product supplier in the US, the company began importing US chickens in the midst of the bird flu epidemic

The company expects to import more US chicken when prices are lowered after Vietnam's WTO entry forces it to cut tariffs.

The company said people in Hanoi have become more aware of food safety and therefore prefer imported products.

Chau Nhat Trung, a member of the Management Board of the Huynh Gia Huynh De Poultry Processing Company, said that foreign-sourced chicken now accounted for 30-40 percent of the consumed volume in HCM City.

Imports are now almost half the price of local chickens, with many poultry companies seeing their sales halved in the last few months.

While some supermarkets insist that food safety is the main reason for their popularity, local breeders say foreign chickens are causing massive losses and fear Vietnam's food supply would be dominated by imports after the country opens the floodgates when it gains WTO membership.