Shortcutting def – VietNam Breaking News

Health, local origin and looking for more online shopping experiences are the major concerns among Vietnamese consumers.

While health had been the top concern for four consecutive quarters in Vietnam, 49% of Vietnamese consumers indicated health as their top concern in the first quarter of 2020, up 4% compared to the last quarter of 2019, which is the highest level globally, according to the latest report from Nielsen Vietnam.

Vietnamese consumers indicated health as their top concern in the first quarter of 2020.

As such, Vietnamese consumers are looking for products made under the highest safety standard with high quality ingredients and containing healthy supplements such as vitamin C, Vitamin D, Omega 3 or probiotics.

Even prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, nearly two thirds of Vietnamese consumers were willing to trade up on price for products with quality and safety assurance; far higher than the global average of 49%. The trend is likely to intensify as consumers seek for stronger reassurances after the pandemic.

Covid-19 has brought changes in consumer habits and shopping trends that can be seen in the increase of the importance of healthy products as well as the growth around non-perishable products to make sure people have enough food in the pantry to feed their families who have been spending more time at home.

“When consumers are looking for reassurance on product quality, a familiar name with strong equity and reputation can be a shortcut to reassurance on quality, said Louise Marie Hawley, managing director of Nielsen Vietnam. “We do know that local origin is incredibly important here in Vietnam and can offer an advantage over less familiar brands.”

With consumers looking for reassurance on safety and trust, as a result familiar brands and products can have an advantage. These consumer behavior changes have been observed in the countries of the rebound horizon as defined in Nielsen Thought Leadership about Life beyond Covid. Compared with the global average, more Vietnamese consumers had a preference for local products, with 17% saying they only buy local while 59% say they mostly buy local products (vs the global average of 11% and 54%), according to the Nielsen Global Consumer Loyalty Survey in 2019.

As such, this represents a chance for local products to reinforce their credentials. However, they also must continue to deliver good value and represent a strong offering overall to be chosen by consumers and ensure to justify their place on shelf.

At the end of the year, villagers are busy making final preparations for Tet celebrations, including assembling the ingredients to make ‘ chung ’ cakes.

I was excited to join my mom in trips to the rural market, quite far from my house but we used to take a shortcut across the rice field. Everyone who went to the market shouldered bamboo poles to carry their goods home.

At the market, my mother stopped at a shop selling ‘ chit’ leaves, used to wrap long ‘chung’ cakes. She carefully selected every single leaf and checked whether it was torn or not. She also bought bamboo string to tie the cakes.

The making of long ‘ chung’ cakes requires a lot of skills. Elders in my village said that it was a must-have skill for young women before getting married.

When we were back home, my mother boiled the ‘chit’ leaves and then fished them out and washed them carefully on both sides to remove any dust.

The leaves are then cut two ends to shape a square. My mother first placed bamboo strings onto a flat aluminum tray, and then lay down several layers of chit leaves. The leaves must be stacked tightly to each other to prevent rice from dropping out.

The stuffing of a long ‘chung ’ cake included a layer of soaked glutinous rice, followed by mung bean, and finally another layer of rice so that mung bean could be placed in the centre of the cake. The white colour of rice went along with a yellow line of mung beans made the stuffing look beautiful.

The stuffing of a long ‘chung’ cake included soaked glutinous rice and mung bean.

The most difficult step was wrapping the two ends of the cake to form a cylindrical shape for the cake. Without these skills, the ‘chit’ leaves could tear and the rice would fall out.

After my mother finished her job, I tightly wrapped the cakes again several times with several length of bamboo strings before steaming.

The arrangement of the cakes in the boiling pit sounded simple but it also required good skill to maximise the spaces in the pot while ensuring all of the cakes were cooked well from inside to outside

My mother and I would then watch the fire during the boiling process, during which we could smell the fragrance of the glutinous rice and ‘chit’ leaves.

After several hours, the cakes were well cooked and left to dry in a flat bamboo basket. I was assigned to rolling the cakes, a step which helped the cakes become more delicious while keeping their cylindrical shape.

The cake was sliced into wheel-shaped servings as an offering to the ancestors on the last day of the year. The freshly cut cake was still steaming, bringing a scent of Tet to our house.

Long ‘ chung ’ cake is still an indispensable dish in my village during Tet. It is also a part of my childhood and reminds me of the sincerity of my hometown.

Health remains Vietnamese consumers’ top concern: Nielsen

Cylindrical ‘chung’ cake wrapped in ‘chit’ leaves