The negative impact from the COVID-19 epidemic situation, inflation in traditional markets, global purchasing power, decrease in export orders have put businesses in a position of having to adapt to the new situations to find a stable direction.
Furniture enterprises in the province strive to maintain production and meet the needs of the market
Managing difficulties
Facing a good range of difficulties, enterprises have been making efforts to gradually restore production and business operations. According to Tran Thanh Trong, Chairman of the provincial Electromechanical Association, many M&E enterprises have regained purchase orders and workers had to work overtime regularly to ensure production plans. "Stable orders have created a great motivation for businesses to work actively and creatively, improve product quality, and meet customer requirements," said Tran Thanh Trong.
As an enterprise that has made great efforts to put products on supermarket shelves in the country and abroad, Pham Quoc Liem, General Director of Unifarm said that Unifarm hi-tech farm with about 300 hectares of bananas has a high yield of nearly 50 tons a hectare. After harvesting, the products go through the stages of preliminary processing, packaging, preservation and export to ensure quality according to international standards. In order to penetrate demanding markets such as Japan and Korea, Unifarm must prove that it meets all import criteria.
“From applying science to production, now Unifarm branded products are becoming more and more popular in the markets; the company's cantaloupe and bananas are present in all retail systems in the country. Unifarm's cantaloupe has been exported to Singapore since 2018 while bananas are exported to Korea, Japan and other countries. Unifarm has been consulting the transferring technology, and linking consumption for production to small farms," added Pham Quoc Liem.
Faced with many difficulties and challenges, furniture enterprises consider trade promotion an important solution to help revive export turnover after decreasing by nearly 30% in the first half of 2023. Enterprises clearly realize that the current market of Binh Duong furniture is not diversified. Processed wood products are present in 140 countries and territories, but focusing on 5 main markets are the US, China, Japan, Korea, and the EU with about 90% of total export turnover. Therefore, when these 5 markets face difficulties, the overall export turnover will decrease.
More bridges
Cao Van Dong, General Director of Kettle Interiors Asia Co. Ltd. in Di An city, said that in the current difficult period, furniture enterprises need to strengthen trade promotion activities to reach customers. As an example, the company in March 2023 participated in the Vietnam International Furniture and Fine Arts Export Fair (VIFA EXPO 2023) in Ho Chi Minh City with very positive results. “Right at the fair, we sold 24 containers, approaching 40 new customers. I hope that participating in VIFA ASEAN 2023 in this August will help businesses achieve better results,” said Cao Van Dong.
Phan Thi Khanh Duyen, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, assessed that trade promotion activities are considered "supportive" to support market development for products with strengths of localities. Over the past time, the People's Committee of the province and branches have also organized activities to connect trade between suppliers and export enterprises.
“The trade promotion program is a practical solution, promoting businesses to increase production and consumption of products, introduce and promote typical products with export potential of localities to agencies. international trade promotion agencies, importers, buyers. This is an important multi-party connection platform, enabling businesses to capture diverse tastes, thereby participating more deeply in the global supply chain,” said Phan Thi Khanh Duyen.
Le Viet Nga, Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department under Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that from now until the end of the year, there would be many stimulus programs to support businesses. The Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to implement a nationwide market stabilization program. These programs will boost domestic demand and support manufacturing enterprises to find output for their products, especially modern retail systems such as Aeon, Winmart, Saigon Co.op, Central Retail, in which, special attention is paid to supporting businesses in large and capable localities such as Ho Chi Minh city, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai.
Reported by Tieu My – Translated by Vi Bao
