Vietnam’s FMCG industry grows 5.4% in 2017: Nielsen

The 2017 performance of Vietnam’s fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, measured through traditional trade channels, reported a growth of 5.4%, higher than the 4.9% increase level recorded in 2016.

The FMCG growth observed in rural areas in 2017 is reported at 6.1% annually.
The FMCG growth observed in rural areas in 2017 is reported at 6.1% annually.

In the fourth quarter of last year, however, the growth slowed down significantly to just 0.5% versus 6.4% in Q3, according to the Nielsen Quarterly Market Pulse report released by Nielsen Vietnam, a global measurement and data analytics company.

The report shows that the slowdown was witnessed across all the super FMCG categories, including food, milk, household care, and personal care. Only beverages enjoyed a significantly higher increase than the other groups, with a growth rate at 3.2%.

According to Nguyen Anh Dung, Executive Director, Retail Measurement Services at Nielsen Vietnam, the circulation of products in the super FMCG categories, through traditional trade channels and outlets in both urban and rural areas, slumped dramatically in Q4 2017, due to the heavy toll on people and assets caused by the continuous typhoons in several regions in Vietnam, especially in rural areas.

Another reason for the low growth in Q4 was the late timing of the Lunar New Year (Tet) 2018, which fell in mid-February compared to early January as in the previous Tet, he said.

Concerning the FMCG performance in rural and urban areas, the Nielsen Vietnam report shows that the growth observed in rural areas was reported at 6.1% annually, while the urban FMCG growth rate was flat at 4% annually.

The rural regions continue to be a new source of growth for producers, Dung said, stating that the expansion of business to rural areas in Vietnam brings with it the same challenge that are faced by Asian countries - a high cost to serve geographically dispersed districts.