 |
| At the Vinamart supermarket in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Photo: VOV) |
At the Vinamart supermarket on Movivong Boulevard, Phnom Penh, right at the entrance, a series of goods with Vietnamese Tet flavors such as gift baskets, “Chung” cake, jam, and confectionery are displayed to make them easier for people to purchase. This year, Tet comes early, so right from November, the supermarket has started to prepare goods to serve overseas Vietnamese. In order to prepare the quantity of goods to meet the needs of consumers during the Tet holiday, the supermarket has actively worked with manufacturers and suppliers. Along with that, the supermarket also offers many promotion programs to stimulate consumer demand.
"Vinamart has worked with Vietnamese partners to prepare all kinds of goods to serve the purchasing needs during Vietnamese traditional Tet. Especially, the goods with Vietnamese Tet flavor such as jam, confectionery, 'Chung' cake, and Vietnamese calendars or gift baskets of all kinds," said Mr. Ngo Van Vinh, manager of Vinamart supermarket.
Though not having a long holiday off, the Vietnamese community in Cambodia still maintains the traditional custom of celebrating the Lunar New Year of the nation. In order to meet the food demand on Tet holiday, Lotus restaurant in Phnom Penh is also urgently preparing for Tet food orders such as: “Chung” cake, “Tet” cake, Vietnamese sausage, and pickled scallion heads.
"Although it has not been Tet yet, there have been customers who have ordered from a few dozen to hundreds of Chung cakes and Vietnamese sausage at the restaurant,” Mr. Le Manh Hung, owner of Lotus restaurant shared.
He hoped that Tet is closer, more goods will be sold and he also hoped that the quantity of Tet goods sold will be double the previous year.
The number of customers buying Tet goods in Phnom Penh also begins to increase gradually. Although prices of goods this year tend to increase slightly compared to previous years, everyone is happy with the desire to prepare a better Vietnamese Tet after nearly three years of being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During the year-end, I want to go to the supermarket to buy some Vietnamese goods to decorate and use during Tet. I see that this year the goods are more available than every year. Last year there was the COVID-19 pandemic, so the goods were few," said Nguyen Duc Tinh, a Vietnamese person in Phnom Penh.
In harmony with the atmosphere of preparing for Tet, shops selling decorations, flowers and ornamental plants in Phnom Penh are also busy to prepare goods to serve the needs of the people. Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Hoa, manager of Kim Long flower shop, said that this year, the shop imports more kinds of flowers and ornamental plants from Vietnam to meet the needs of customers.
She predicts that the kinds of flowers and ornamental plants with the meaning of luck and fortune will be very expensive during Tet.
"Currently, the shop is importing many ornamental plants and flowers for Tet such as: chrysanthemum, eustoma russellianum, sunflower, rose, honeysuckle, rhododendron and many other items. About a week from now, the shop will import all kinds of ornamental kumquats, apricots, peaches to serve people to welcome Tet,” she said.
Although it has not yet fully recovered as before the COVID-19 pandemic, the goods market for Tet in Cambodia is forecast to continue to be more active in the coming days./.