Vietnamese consumers willing to pay more for safe foods: survey

About four out of five Vietnamese consumers are willing to spend more on foods produced from materials that are labelled safe and environmentally friendly, according to a survey conducted by Nielsen Vietnam.

Survey results released on April 19 showed that brands which commit to selling green and safe products reported a growth rate of 4%, with foods and beverages expanding by between 2.5% and 11.4% in recent years.

Dang Thuy Ha from Nielsen Vietnam said that in order to increase competitiveness, companies should pay more attention to building green brands.

Accordingly, enterprises should build up consumers’ confidence in their brands through commitments on social and environmental responsibilities as well as put consumers’ health at the centre of their product development.

Vu Xuan Truong from the Institute for Brand and Competitiveness Strategy said that ‘green’ products are becoming a competitive edge of many enterprises to conquer the market.

He said that enterprises should employ energy-efficient technologies, implement their social responsibilities and protect the environment in order to build green brands.

However, there are still many challenges facing Vietnamese enterprises, especially small and medium-sized businesses, which lack funds to invest in green product development while having to balance between the two goals of profit and green growth.

In addition, there are a wide range of green technologies in the world but the application in Vietnam is limited because in some cases employees at enterprises are underqualified to utilise technologies transferred to them.

The Trade Promotion Agency said in the time ahead it would foster the ecological labelling programme and promote mutual recognition of green labels between Vietnam and other countries to facilitate local enterprises to expand their markets.