Monday, 14 September 2009

Local goods penetrate Cambodia

Ceramics goods are displayed at the second Viet Nam trade fair held in Phnom Penh on September 2. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Huu Ha.

14-09-2009

HA NOI — While Thai products still dominate the Cambodian market, Vietnamese consumer goods have outpaced those from China, according to a recent survey by the Business Study and Assistance Centre and the Research Centre on Business and Consumers of the Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper.

Cambodian customers told the survey takers that Vietnamese goods were acceptable in quality and cheap in price, and Vietnamese goods were available in two of Phnom Penh’s biggest markets – Orussay and Phsar Thmay – as well as in most supermarkets throughout Cambodia’s capital city.

Some Vietnamese entrepreneurs had also opened shops in Cambodia to bring their goods directly into the hands of Cambodian buyers, the survey found.

To better penetrate the Cambodian market, a distribution network for Vietnamese goods was needed, as well as stronger trade promotion efforts, including free samples of products, suggested Truong Cung Nghia, director of the Truong Doan Market Research Centre.

The packaging of Vietnamese products could be improved to better appeal to Cambodian consumers, and should be printed in the Khmer, said Nghia, adding that more information about smaller-scale producers and distributors should be made available to Cambodian buyers.

Viet Nam enjoys a trade surplus with its neighbour, exporting such products as instant noodles, plastics, cigarettes, snack, fruit and vegetables and materials and supplies for the textile industry, automotive spare- parts, timber and rubber.

Bilateral trade was expected to climb to US$2 billion next year, from $1.7 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 40 per cent. — VNS

No comments: