Vietnam is rich in raw materials for vegetarian food. Photo: T.H

Tens of billions of dong in revenue from garden eggs

At the seminar "Market flow of vegetarian food and alternative meat" organized by the Vietnam High Quality Goods Association on March 1, 2022 in HCM City, Nguyen Le Quoc Tuan, General Director of Song Huong Technology Food Processing Company (Song Huong Food), said the company was shifting its products to vegetarian food. Tuan said that he has been a vegetarian for more than six years, so he spent a lot of time researching good dishes for vegetarians. Vietnamese food is very diverse and interchangeable.

Currently, white garden eggs are a dish that has been invested a lot by Song Huong Food. The company built a factory in An Giang to make food from white garden eggs. In 2021, Song Huong Food's sales of white garden egg products alone reached revenue of about VND30 billion. "I dream that one day, white garden eggs will be present in every Vietnamese family's meal like kimchi in Korea," said Tuan.

According to Vu Kim Hanh, Chairman of the Vietnam High Quality Goods Business Association (BSA), from the perspective of market researchers, the current vegetarian trend of consumers is an opportunity for Vietnamese agricultural products.

Marketers must know the prevailing trend and must have the courage to create trends and markets.

Currently, BSA is pursuing a long-term study of fermented foods. Fermented foods are not strange to Vietnamese people, such as fermented rice, fermented glutinous rice, and pickles. “We eat them but we don't know this is a global trend. As South Korea has just summarized, after the pandemic, the amount of kimchi exported to the world increased by one and a half times," Hanh said.

In their marketing campaign, they emphasized the properties of kimchi to expand the market. While they only have kimchi, Vietnam has a lot of melon dishes, if we can't promote them, it means our marketing is not good.

Regarding white garden eggs of Song Huong Food, Hanh hoped that one day Song Huong Food could do a big show, bringing them to the podium like kimchi.

Towards exports

Speaking about the development trend of vegetarian food, Vu Kim Hanh said Vietnam does not have a product that can be exported as an independent vegetarian food block.

In the export product lines such as instant noodles and fish sauce, vegetarian products can be mixed, but an independent and unique vegetarian product block like kimchi does not exist. Even young jackfruit exported by Vinamit has not yet become a unique product for people. As for the government, according to Hanh, there is currently no separate marketing campaign for Vietnamese vegetarian products.

In terms of safety, not only with vegetarian food but also with processed food for export in general, the sophistication and strict testing of Europe and other demanding markets are posing challenges for Vietnamese manufacturers. Strict adherence to the process is just a basic discipline.

For Song Huong Food's white garden egg products, Nguyen Le Quoc Tuan said that the company's products have not met all domestic demand, so only a small amount of goods are exported to Japan to prove that the production process meets strict food safety standards.

Song Huong Food is promoting the construction of a new factory in An Giang with a total investment of VND65 billion, with a capacity of nearly 2,000 tons/year, it is expected to come into operation at the end of this year. At that time, the company will have enough sources for the domestic market and export.

Speaking about the vegetarian market, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dam Sao Mai, Vice Rector of the Industrial University of HCM City, said that there were many big companies developing meat substitute products in the world. Therefore, Vietnamese businesses making meat substitutes are very good but must understand the market demand. First, learn and respond to the global prevailing trends, then look for other products to create new habits for the market and consumers.