A recent decision to abolish the state’s monopoly over printing of daily calendars has stirred up domestic calendar market with many new players who have already begun to release next year’s calendars.
Unlike in the past, when the calendars only appeared in November after waiting for the nod from a board in charge of regulating calendar production, this year samples have already been to shown to bookstores, companies, and agents.
Several producers are offering of 25 per cent to even 50 per cent, raising a worry over its effect on calendar prices.
Nine major producers of Saigon Culture Corp., FAHASA, and HCMC Publishing House met in Ho Chi Minh City in mid-August to form a cartel to offer a common discount rate of 35 per cent and to jointly address other difficulties.
They have planned another meeting this month to prepare for the launch of products.
Bui Viet Bac, director of the state-owned Culture-Information Publishing House, expressed worry for his business this year after the liberalization of daily calendar production.
He said private companies began to dominate the sheet calendar market just three years after the government allowed them to enter the business.
This year his company had registered to distribute 5.5 million daily calendars, two million more than last year but he was not sure about its success.
Finding major distributors for their products is now the most pressing concern for calendar makers as domestic publishers have registered to sell more than 100 million daily calendars this year.
Tran Tan Ngo, general director of the Vietnam Books Corp., forecast a large quantity of daily calendars would remain unsold and several producers would incur heavy losses as the domestic market would only absorb 15 million of them.
However, a publishing house executive disagreed saying there could actually be a shortage because many publishers did not dare expand their production.
Young People
Vietnamese
