Sausage market still hot
The prediction about the saturation of the sausage market two years ago was a false alarm as the industry has had stable annual growth rate of 15-20%.
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Vietnam had 10 sausage producers five years ago, but now the figure is over 50.
Investors continue to purchase sausage companies. Masan, for example, bought into Vissan, while Daesang Corporation from the Republic of Korea spent US$32 million (VND770 billion) to acquire 99.99% of Duc Viet Food JSC. CJ Group bought 64.9% of shares of Minh Dat Food worth US$13.4 million (VND305 billion).
Meanwhile, sausage producers are thriving. Vissan holds 65% of the sausage market share; the products make up 50% of Vissan’s total profits.
Nipponham, which reports 15-20% growth rate per annum, has decided to build another factory in Hung Yen province as the factory in Long Hau IZ with the capacity of 2,500 tons a month cannot satisfy demand.
Viet Foods continues expanding its investments to gain more market share in the north. Mavin Foods has built a new factory with a production line from Germany, capitalized at US$10 million.
Ba Huan joined the market later than its rival, but it has been quick to exploit the market. It has just marketed chicken and pork sausage products. Prior to that, it launched Oliba pasteurized sausage.
Sausage enterprises are competing in output by setting up more factories, but are also focusing on quality.
A senior executive of Ba Huan said that Ba Huan’s products are not similar to other products available in the market.
Other products are made of pork or beef, while Ba Huan uses beef, chicken, and pork mixed with fresh fowl eggs. They also contain soybean protein.
Meanwhile, Vu Thi Minh Loan from Viet Foods said the company’s 6,000 square meter factory is equipped with the most advanced equipment, and that all the materials and spices are imported from developed countries in Asia and Europe. Viet Foods imports Australian beef, and German and French pork. It also uses chicken filet from prestigious farms in Vietnam.
Germany Brentag, the US’ Connell Bros, German Benmeyer and Japanese Ajinomoto are all Viet Foods’ partners in spice supply.
An analyst said the advantages of foreign-invested enterprises (such as CP and Marvin Foods) are the closed supply chains from farm to table, while Vietnamese companies are flexible and have low operation costs.
However, the biggest worry for sausage producers is unhealthy competition.
“The competition in the food market and the sausage market in particular is very stiff. Some enterprises have suffered from unhealthy competition,” Loan said.