Soft Drinks Ideal during Summer

As one of the five non-alcoholic drink markets with the fastest growth in the world, each Vietnamese drinks three litres of soft drink per annum on average. The figure was put at 50 litres for the Philippines. According to a recent research by the Research and Development Department of the Chuong Duong Company, each year Vietnamese people consume over 500 million litres of carbonated soft drink. However, the consumption of the kind of soft drink has reached the saturated level and is expected to drop by between five and six per cent in the coming years. Meanwhile, the demand for non-carbonated soft drinks, especially fruit juice, has increased sharply in Vietnam, around 30 per cent per year. According to sales in 2004-2005 of the Bidrico Company, around 50 per cent of users in the consumers in cities have shifted to vitamin-rich drinks with less sugar and more natural flavour.

 

Before the change of the market demand, soft drink producers have changed their production structure. Such giants as Vinamilk, Tribeco and Wonderfarm have marketed many fruit juice products, including apple, mango, grape and custard-apple to meet the customers’ demand. Producers have increased their output by 20 per cent against last year: Vinamilk increased by 30 per cent for fruit juice under the brand of Fresh; Pepsi, 30 per cent for non-carbonated soft drinks. At the same time, Pepsi has launched the new product of Twister, made of litchi and apple. Importers have diversified the market with various imported goods such as Ligo, Welch’s, Regain, Berri and Drwitt. The Delta Company has affirmed to increase the production of fruit juice, in particular products of artichoke, sugarcane, ginseng and waky.

 

With various products in the market, companies have given special offers by improving the quality of products and keeping their prices despite an increase in salary of workers and prices of materials. This has directly benefited users. Even though producers have made efforts to launch new products, bottled fruit juice products, they have met only 18 per cent of the market’s demand. According to Fabrice Carrasco, director of TNS Vietnam, the demand for energy drinks has increased sharply in the Vietnamese soft drink market. The market has great potential and is waiting for producers to exploit.

 

The abandoned sessions of the local soft drinks with natural flavour have given a chance for soya milk, carrot and centella juice, produced manually. Sold at cheap prices, the juice products are available on pavements and in most residential areas. It is bottled and delivered to doors of users. With its advantage of low prices, between VND 1,000 and 4,000 per glass, consumers continue to use the products without any agencies responsible for its quality.

 

The variety in the demand of the local soft drink market has offered local and foreign producers good business opportunities and local people more options.