Around 30 million Vietnamese are expected to visit supermarkets in the United States this year, as their economies grow faster than those of most other major economies, according to a new study.
The study, commissioned by the United Nations, is the first to examine how Vietnamese supermarkets have become United stores, in contrast to the country’s traditional dominant supermarkets.
“The Vietnam supermarket chain is a very important part of Vietnamese retailing,” said Paul Dejong, who led the project with the UN agency’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Vietnam is one of the world’s most heavily dependent economies on food exports. “
This study shows that in a few years, Vietnamese supermarkets will be the biggest on the planet.”
Vietnam is one of the world’s most heavily dependent economies on food exports.
It exports $30bn worth of food a year to the US, which accounts for half of all its food imports.
But as the number of Vietnamese consumers increases, it has struggled to adapt to the changes.
“We don’t know exactly what they [the Vietnamese] are doing, but we know they are buying more and more items that are processed in the US and have been processed in Vietnam, which makes it difficult for us to adapt,” said Dejong.
Vietnamese supermarkets are often seen as the biggest in the country, but many of them have been around for decades, Dejong said.
“They are very old, and they are also very difficult to sell in the new world,” he said.
The FAO study, released on Wednesday, also found that Vietnamese supermarkets sold fewer products than in the past, which some argue has hampered the transition to the new United supermarket.
“It’s a new reality for the Vietnamese,” said Nguy Tran, the deputy director of FAO’s Southeast Asia region.
“When you look at a supermarket, there’s a lot of products, but not many of those are for consumption,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I think we will see some consolidation in the future.”
The United supermarket chain, which was founded in 1966, was originally founded to serve US food, but is now being used to sell products in a number US states, as well as Europe and Asia.
According to the report, Vietnamese consumers spent almost a third of their total spending on groceries in the USA in 2016, compared to less than one third in 2010.
“This is not a new problem for Vietnam, it’s a problem for all of the countries,” said Nguyen Pham, a representative for the FAO in Vietnam.
“A lot of the products they are purchasing in the market are processed overseas and that’s where the profits are.”
But we need to have a better understanding of what they are doing and how they can adapt to that.
“The report is not the first time that Vietnam has come under fire for its transition to a United supermarket, with consumer groups saying that supermarkets have been forced to close due to rising costs and rising rents.”
Vietuan consumers need to understand that they have a right to a quality food and a quality shopping experience at a reasonable price,” said Lien Ngoc, a spokesperson for the Vietnam Consumer Association, a consumer advocacy group.”
Our country is going through a huge transition and we need more information to make sure that the consumers are not being pushed into this new world.
“The new United supermarkets are expected in the U.S. by 2021, according the FAo report.