Vietnam is becoming a promising market for foreign beer producers.
According to a Lotte Mart representative, Vietnam's beer and beverage market is experiencing an average annual growth rate of 30 percent and beer-drinking is still on the rise.
Beers in supermarket
The Vietnam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association reported that 3.14 billion litres of beer were consumed last year, an increase of 8.1 percent on 2013. As of November, 2015, over 2 billion litres of beer were produced, an increase of 6.8 percent on last year. It is predicted that 3.3 billion litres of beer would be consumed this year.
Market research company Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam said Vietnamese were buying more high-end beer and Vietnam was in the top five beer drinking countries in Asia.
It has been attracting increasing numbers of investors.
Mikio Masawaki, director of Japanese brewing company Sapporo Vietnam, said the local market still had lots of room for expansion and opportunities for high-end beers. He went on to say that competition would be tough due to the participation of many foreign companies. Sapporo in Long An Province is producing 40 million litres of beer each year.
Early this year, Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev opened a 50 million litre per year factory in Binh Duong Province. SABMiller, a multinational brewing and beverage company based in London, is also planning to invest in Vietnam.
Nguyen Huy Hoang, director of Kantar Worldpanel in Vietnam predicted that mergers and acquisitions would become more common and weak domestic companies may lose market share.
