Sharply Rising Milk Price Knocking Customers

The rapid increase of dairy produce prices, which are mostly imports, in the last several days has startled Vietnamese consumers.

 

Milk sellers said dairy produce prices are now some 10-15 per cent higher than some days ago.

 

Mrs. Huong, the owner of a milk sales agent was surprised when reading the price quotation from Abbott: all the products of Abbot have increased by VND15,000-21,000/tin on average.

 

For example, Pediasure, one of the best sellers is now priced at VND280,000/900g-tin instead of VND260,000. Ensure Gold (1 kg) is now selling at VND325,000. A saleswoman at the Old Market said that she herself was surprised at the dramatic price increases. She said she sold fresh Ensure at VND25,000/ box in the morning, while the price skyrocketed to VND34,000 in the afternoon.

 

At Tan Cuc Shop in Hanoi, a big tin of Grow School was sold at VND182,000 in the morning of February 24 (up by VND8,000), Gain IQ for children more than one year old was sold at VND204,000 (+VND10,000). The price increases have also been applied to other products: VND102,000 for Gain (small tin), VND121,000 for Gain Advanced IQ small tin, and VND240,000 for big tin. The price increases have made Vietnamese housewives suffer as Abbott is the favorite brand name in Vietnam.

 

Dumex’s product prices are also reportedly increasing by 5-10 per cent. The kinds of milk powder for children see the biggest increases. Other brand names like XO, Mead Johnson, or S26 sourced from Australia see slight price increases.

 

The Vietnam Dairy Products Company, the owner of Vinamilk, a domestic brand name, has also announced new prices for its products. Vinamilk yogurt is now selling at VND2,600/box, up by 12 per cent.

 

Even with the current high prices, analysts said that dairy products will see further increases in the time to come. Mrs Loan, the owner of a milk shop on Hai Ba Trung street in district 1 of HCM City, said milk producers adjust their price policies once a year, and the prices always go up, never down.

 

This is the second time in the last 15 months Abbott has decided to raise the selling prices of its products. Sales agents, when explaining the price increases, said it is because of the Euro revaluation. As the majority of dairy products are imported from Europe, the Euro revaluation has made them more expensive.

 

Meanwhile, other sales agents said that dairy products’ prices increase because of higher prices of materials. They said Australia and the US, the main suppliers of materials, are suffering from the longest droughts in the last 100 years.

 

However, the explanations have not been accepted by many experts, who said that milk producers raise selling prices to compete with each other. In the eyes of Vietnamese customers, good products always have high prices.