Nghiên cứu thị trường hạt óc chó tại việt nam (tiếng anh)

However, almost walnut consumption in Vietnam is imported and Vietnamese consumers prefer imported walnut to domestic one even though they have to pay much more money than using Vietnam’

ĐẠI HỌC PHÙNG GIÁP TRƯỜNG CÔNG NGHỆ VÀ QUẢN LÝ QUỐC TẾ

(TÓM TẮT) NGHIÊN CỨU THỊ TRƯỜNG HẠT ÓC CHÓ

TẠI VIỆT NAM

Người hướng dẫn : Giáo sư Ting -Hsiang Tseng

Học viên: Bùi Thị Hiếu

Đài Loan, 2016

中 華 民 國 一 百 零 五 年 六 月

Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://ww Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN

http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The completion of this thesis could not have been possible without the participation and assistance of so many people whose names may not all be enumerated Their contributions sincerely appreciated and gratefully acknowledged However, I would like to express my deep appreciation and indebtedness particularly to the following:

International school of Technology and Management to give me an excellent opportunity

ABSTRACT

Walnut has known as an advantage food for health and that is why it becomes more and more popular now not only in the world but also in Vietnam market However, almost walnut consumption in Vietnam is imported and Vietnamese consumers prefer imported walnut to domestic one even though they have to pay much more money than using Vietnam’s walnut Why this happens? The present study has finished an overview of the walnut market in Vietnam in which the current situations of both imported walnut and domestic one was located In addition, the perception and acceptance of consumers for different kinds of walnut also was collected to support the answer for the question above Overall, the result of this paper leads a suggestion and direction to enhance the position of domestic walnut in Vietnam market

Key Words: walnut market, competitor analysis, Vietnamese walnut, market research

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

List of Figure v

List of Table vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Research problem 3

1.3 Research objective 4

1.4 Importance of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Walnut market in Vietnam 5

2.2 A market investigation 6

2.2.1 Market environment 6

2.2.2 Competitor analysis 7

2.2.3 Consumer behavior 7

2.3 Summary 8

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 9

3.1 Research framework 9

3.1.1 Market environment 11

3.1.2 Competitor analysis 12

3.1.3 Consumer behavior 13

3.2 Research method 13

3.2.1 Collecting secondary data 14

3.2.2 Focus group method 14

3.3 Collecting data 16

3.3.1 Individual question 16

3.3.2 Discussion question 17

3.4 Analyzing qualitative data 17

CHAPTER 4: RESULT ANALYSIS 18

4.1 Global walnut market overview 18

4.2 Vietnamese walnut market 23

4.2.1 Vietnam overview 23

4.2.2 Vietnam walnut market 23

4.2.3 Economic information 25

4.2.4 Policy 28

4.2.3 Demographic 30

4.2.4 Technology 33

4.2.5 Culture 35

4.2.6 Natural environment 36

4.3 Competitor Analysis 37

4.3.1 California walnut 37

4.3.2 Chinese walnut 38

4.3.3 Current situation of foreign walnut in Vietnam market 40

4.3.4 Vietnamese walnut in compare 41

4.4 Consumer behavior 41

4.4.1 Introduction 41

4.4.2 Questionnaire 42

4.4.3 Focus group method 45

CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 49

5.1 Summarize the results 49

5.2 Some suggestions for the Government and industry 50

5.3 Contributions of the research 51

Appendix 57

List of Figure

Figure 1-1: Nutrients in one ounce of walnut

Figure 3-1: Research framework

Figure 3-2: Seven steps in establishing the questionnaires

Figure 3-3: An example of the questionnaires

Figure 3-4: Discussion plan

Figure 4-1: Vietnam GDP annual growth rate

Figure 4-2: Vietnam income level estimation

Figure 4-3: Vietnam average monthly wages

Figure 4-4: The population pyramid of Vietnam

Figure 4-5: Vietnam’s tech industry- total revenue (2008- 2012)

Figure 4-6: Top seven fastest growth internet populations 2008- 2013

Figure 4-7: Consumer status

Figure 4-8: Walnut products were preferred

Figure 4-9: Kinds of walnut werbought

Figure 4-10: Perception of consumers for different walnuts

Figure 4-11: General view of consumers for walnuts

Figure 4-12: General evaluation of different walnuts

Figure 4-13: The main factors effected on the consumer’s decision

List of Table

Table 4.1: The six countries have higher productivity

Table 4.2: The price on average of walnut in global market

Table 4.3: Exported walnut in rate (%)

Table 4.4: Walnut domestic consumption in major producing countries

Table 4.5: Walnut consumption in several countries including Vietnam in 2011

Table 4.6: International trade of Vietnam from 2009 to 2013

Table 4.7: Demographic information about Vietnam 2014

Table 4.8: Description of each group

Table 4.9: The main discussion questions

in 1983 to 1,491,439 tons in 2005 (World Edible Nuts Economy 2008)

In Vietnam, walnut tree mostly grows on mountain slopes and valleys in the North The Government officials tend to encourage the area of walnut each year as a means of protecting against wind erosion In addition, growing walnut trees also considered as a good way to control water erosion on sloped or terraced lands That is why total acreage is increasing and concentrated

Walnut has known as the king of nuts with high nutritional value such as omega-3 and

saturated fat (Figure 1.1) In addition, walnut not only has no cholesterol, but also is a precious

kind of food containing rich vitamins, protein, minerals, and fiber Therefore, walnut frequently used for children, patients and pregnant women Moreover, many scientists had pointed out in their researches that walnut played an important role in treating diseases related to cancer and cardiovascular problems

Source://www.walnuts.org/health-and-walnuts/nutrition/nutrients-in-one-ounce-of-walnuts

Figure 1-1: Nutrients in one ounce of walnut

With the unbelievable advantages of walnut, the worldwide production and consuming of

it has increased each year especially in Asia According to the FAO, around 2.55 million tons of

walnuts were produced in 2010 on the world with the largest producer was China The United

States known as largest exporter of walnuts (Vazzano Jeffries 2015)

Currently, the consuming of walnut is increasing each year In fact, the global consumption

of walnut had grown up 49 % from last ten years (World Edible Nuts Economy 2008) It is now

much more common to see walnut baked into breads, rolls, biscuits, cake, cream, and go on However, walnut still keeps a bit high price in the market with eight USD per kilo in average

In Vietnam, walnut gained much more attention of consumers because of its high nutritional value Vietnamese considers the benefits of walnut for human brain, heart, hair, and kidneys This leads to enhanced walnut market in Vietnam with high demand Definitely, Vietnam

is a potential market of walnut with high demand (Hoang Thi Lua 2014) due to 22,000 tons of

consumption walnut, according to the statistical handbook of Vietnam 2014 by General Statistics Office However, most of them imported from the USA and China, which made its price, became more expensive On the other site, Vietnamese walnut is cheaper, but almost consumers prefer imported walnut to domestic one This makes Vietnamese walnut to be less competition in the market even though it also has a good quality

1.2 Research problem

Even though Vietnamese walnut brings the same quality as a Chinese walnut with a reasonable price, it still cannot compete with imported walnut Thus, how to enhance the power of Vietnamese walnut in the domestic market is the big question needs to find the solution, if not this will lead to another problem in which walnut of farmers will be unsold So, an overview of the walnut market in Vietnam being such the most important need for making any solution for this issue Therefore, this research tends to complete an overall picture about the walnut market in Vietnam with the big research question that is what is the current situation of the walnut market in Vietnam? In which the information surrounding imported, domestic walnut, key consumers, and acceptance and perception of customer provided This will be a giant foundation to solve the contradiction between increasing walnut area and reducing competitive ability

1.3 Research objective

The goal of this research is finding out the answer for the research question that mentioned above There are three main objectives due to complete, an overview of the walnut market in Vietnam as below:

i Describe the current market environment of walnut in Vietnam

ii Analyze competitors of domestic walnut

iii Find out customer’s acceptation and perception of domestic walnut and foreign walnut 1.4 Importance of the study

In fact, Vietnam has known as a potential for walnut and many researchers had focused on this field However, so far no one has completed an overview of the walnut market in Vietnam Therefore, this research will full fill the gap by providing a general view about the walnut market

in Vietnam in which the information related to the market environment, competitor analysis, and customer behavior would provided as a necessary foundation to enhance the authority of Vietnamese walnut in the domestic market Moreover, the study also is a priority source of information for government, companies, and other researchers

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Walnut market in Vietnam

The 35th Circular of the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development of Vietnam (23/06/2010) had mentioned that walnut used as a main perennial tree in the forestland in Vietnam

In fact, the Vietnamese Government has applied many polices to build up walnut tree area in which farmers would receive seedling and money from the government to grow walnut trees on their own land Some researchers had focused on Vietnam walnut and one of them pointed out that Vietnam

was a potential market for walnut to fill in (Hoang Thi Lua 2014) In her study, she also determined

the importance of market investigation of walnut before giving any decisions, plans, and strategies

In fact, the Asia Matters for America Organization said, “Vietnam is one of the few export destinations for California walnuts which have not reduced imports The country imports, seven million more pounds of walnuts than China in the first three months of the 2014/15 season Vietnam is now the 12th largest agricultural export market for the US The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) currently in discussion, of which the US and Vietnam are both members, is

expected to further expand trade relations”(“California Walnut Exports to Vietnam Remain Strong

as Chinese Demand Collapses | Asia Matters for America by the East-West Center” 2016) On the

other hand, many other researches focused on China walnut One of these articles interested in the assurance of the California Walnut Board (CWB) stating that the slowdown in walnut exports to China is not alarming According to Michelle McNeil of the CWB, China remains a very valuable market to the walnut industry and is one of the leading export markets The expectation of the

CWB to see promising new markets such as India is also cited (Vazzano Jeffries 2015) And China

also planned to expand Chinese walnut in the Asia market to 2020 which Vietnamese was mentioned as a potential customer for China’s walnut (M2 Presswire 2015)

2.2 A market investigation

Nowadays, market research becomes more popular In addition, more and more researchers have been interested in as a result Philip Kotler has known as a famous researcher in this field And in his text-book named Marketing an Introduction, he and his co-author had pointed out that

to complete a market research requires analysis three main important sides such as market

environment, competitors, and consumer behavior (Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller 2012)

2.2.1 Market environment

Definitely, other researchers demonstrated in their paper that market environment factor (or macro environment) played a necessary role in any market investigation research An article named Prediction of Organizational Effectiveness in Construction Companies had mentioned that subsystems, business, and macro environments were the most significant variables that determined

organizational effectiveness (OE) to increase firm performance (Dikmen, Birgonul, and Kiziltas 2005) Moreover, Philip Kolter and his co-author had mentioned in their text- book that to develop effective marketing strategies, understanding market environment is very importance (Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler 2011) Moreover, they pointed out the forces named cultural, natural,

demographic, economic, technological, and political in this field

These six main forces, above had analyzed in many other studies Bydanova, Mushketova, and Rouet not only pointed out the affect of demographic, social, economic factors on the market

of university services in Russia, but also admitted international competition, demographic decrease,

change in age structure and consumer behavior (Bydanova, Mushketova, and Rouet 2015)

Others spent their interest for natural environmental factor in the macro environment in marketing One of them is Crance who completed a volume that provides a new look at marketing

by presenting evidence from extensive case studies in which natural environment kept an important

situation in marketing activities (Crane 2002)

The technological environment has known the strong force building the future In fact, new technologies create new markets and opportunities The study of Lin and Chang tended to have more capabilities to undertake diversified technological projects They used a sample of 165 S&P manufacturing firms with data taken into use in 2008, their result showed that large firms could benefit from a diversified technological portfolio with regard to both financial and innovation performances In addition, the relationship between technological diversity and firm performance found more strength by firms' internal and external contextual factors, namely absorptive capacity

and environmental dynamism (Lin and Chang 2015)

On the other hand, the development of political environment influenced marketing decisions as well De Villa, Rajwani, and Lawton had explained the multi-levels of the political environment that could have a moderating effect on transnational corporations’ (TNC) market entry processes in their study They showed that the market entry modes literature had highly

excluded some aspects of the political environment from the market (De Villa, Rajwani, and Lawton 2015)

2.2.2 Competitor analysis

A company must produce give higher customer value and satisfaction than competitors to

be success Therefore, competitor analysis is a need for every company to survive in the market Schuster had focused on understanding of competition in social marketing by empirically investigating, and the influence on decision-making had pointed out in his research Finally, he announced that the operation of competitors at the behavioral and goal level affected on consumers’

decision (Schuster 2015)

2.2.3 Consumer behavior

“Consumer buyer behavior refers to the buying behavior of final consumers- individuals

and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption”(Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler 2011) They also determined cultural, personal, social and psychological highly

influenced on consumer’s purchase

Shavitt and Cho have examined horizontal and vertical individualism–collectivism in consumer behavior as their research They expressed that cultural factors addressed how hierarchy and power conceptualized Moreover, they pointed that cultural factors predict status seeking and presidia spending in the marketplace And, cultural factors pattern personal values and goals,

power concepts, and normative expectations applied to the exercise of power (Shavitt and Cho 2016)

On the other side, some researchers focused on social factor influencing consumer behavior Moschis has focused on family communication that affected customer behavior His study conceptualized the family communication processes and effects For conclusion, He determined

that family communication strongly influenced on consumer behavior (Moschis 1985) Grant,

Clarke, and Kyriazis had focused on consumer information search behavior including information

source utility, personal factors and product factors (Grant, Clarke, and Kyriazis 2007)

Finally yet importantly, motivation, learning, perception, and beliefs and attitude are the

main factors influenced consumer’s buying behavior (Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler 2011)

On the other hand, Charintorn Srewitoon focused on consumer behaviors on buying green products

to examine whether the consumers have motives affecting consumers' buying (Charintorn Srewitoon 2014)

need to focus on to finish this research

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research framework

Based on the research question, the research objectives, and the literature review that mentioned above, the research framework has conducted as below:

Figure 3-1: Research framework

The present study will follow the research framework above in which three main factors such as environment, competitor, and consumers analyzed clearly to find out the answer for the research question

Consumer Behavior

Acceptation

Perception

3.1.1 Market environment

i Demographic

Demography focuses on human populations such as size, density, location, and so on The demographic environment influenced market because it involves people who build up the markets

In this section, the present research focused on:

 Age structure of Vietnam’s population was located

 Geographic shifts in population of Vietnam

ii Economic

On this side, an analysis of changing in income and spending of Vietnamese had provided obviously Moreover, the changing consumer spending patterns also analyzed Moreover, the main terms need to determine, such as living costs, income, interest rate, and so on

iii Natural

Some popular trends found out from the present study such as:

 Climate, weather, soil, and land that effects on the growing of walnut tree in Vietnam

 The natural environment related to grow walnut in California where it grows best in the world

 The natural environment was focused that supported to grow walnut in the North of Vietnam

iv Technological

The information that related to using technology in the walnut industry gathered such as

 Use new technology in growing and processing walnut in Vietnam

 Using high technology in increasing walnut market in Vietnam such as smart phone, the internet, and advertising

v Political

The political environment of Vietnam provided following the sides below:

 Economic policies that related to the walnut market in Vietnam

 Traded and imported policies

 Policies and The policies tend to enhance walnut market in Vietnam

 Projects that linked to walnut market in Vietnam

vi Cultural

The current research focused on several following cultural characteristics:

 Diet of Vietnamese has focused

 Health care in Vietnam was located

 Priority people in Vietnam were named

 Using imported products of Vietnamese has mentioned

3.1.2 Competitor analysis

In this section, the information about two sides below provided:

i SWOT analysis for both imported walnut and domestic walnut as the frame below

 Strength:

 What strength does the organization have?

 What does it do better than anyone else?

 What are other walnuts on the Vietnam market know as its advantages?

Consider the strengths from an internal perspective and the point of view of its customers in Vietnam market

 Weakness:

 What could it improve?

 What should it avoid?

 What are its weaknesses?

 Opportunities:

 What good opportunities could it achieve?

 What interesting trends are yet aware?

 Threat:

 What obstacles does the kind of walnut face?

 What are its competitors doing with this?

 Could any of its weaknesses seriously threaten its business?

ii Micro view for each competitor

Micro view used for both foreign walnut and domestic walnut in which the information that related to the several views above mentioned such as history, current situation, products, and so

on

3.1.3 Consumer behavior

Consumer purchase influenced highly by the four characteristics that mentions in the research framework above That is why for analyzing consumer behavior, the present study focused on these characteristics as below:

i Cultural factors: Culture, subculture, and social class

ii Social factors: Reference groups, role and status, and family

iii Personal factors: Age and life cycle stage, occupation, economic situation, personal and self-concept, and lifestyle

iv Psychological factors: Motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes, and perception

3.2 Research method

The main purpose of the present study is finding the answer for the research question with three objectives To achieve the first two objectives such as describing the current market environment of walnut in Vietnam and competitor analysis of foreign walnut, the secondary information gathered as the best way to describe the current market environment of walnut in Vietnam and analyzing competitor of imported walnut On the other hand, the last objective named understanding customer’s acceptation and perception of domestic walnut and foreign walnut touched by using the focus group method to recognize the acceptation and perception of Vietnamese customer for both domestic walnut and imported walnut

3.2.1 Collecting secondary data

Secondary data is information that has previously gathered for some purpose other than the current study The present research gathered secondary information from journals, published reports, books and government statistics to analysis environment market in Vietnam in the six characteristics which mentions in the research framework above named demographic, political, economic, cultural and technological On the other side, the secondary data that related to competitors of domestic walnut in Vietnam market were collected The data used for SWOT analysis, micro views each of California walnut and China walnut, and macro view for the hold situation competitors in the walnut market in Vietnam

3.2.2 Focus group method

i An introduction

A focus group is a method of qualitative research in which a small group of people provides opinions and other information about a particular product or issue During a focus group session, one or more moderators ask the group to answer questions or perform other tasks that help show members' attitudes, ideas, desires, and reactions Businesses and other organizations use this information to learn more about public opinions toward new products, programs, and services In modern times, focus groups have become a critical research tool for many organizations around

the world (Dziak 2015)

ii Dividing group

The current research uses focus group method to find the acceptation and perception of Vietnamese customers for both imported walnut and domestic walnut Nowadays, walnut has known as a popular good food for a much more customer However, many studies have determined that elderly people, patient, pregnant women, and parents of children are the key consumer of

walnut And (Marketwire Canada 2015) is a bright instance for this

In Vietnam, walnut is also the best favorite nut with high nutritional value Vietnamese considers the benefits of walnut for human brain, heart, hair, and kidneys This leads to enhanced

walnut market in Vietnam with high demand According to (Hoang Thi Lua 2014), she had

mentioned that walnut used mostly for children, elderly people, pregnant women, and patient in Vietnam Moreover, the statistical handbook of Vietnam 2014 by General Statistics Office also pointed that high valuable food like shark’s fin soup, canary nest, and walnut used more and more for patient, pregnant women, elderly people and children Therefore, the present study will divide Vietnamese consumer to four key groups as below:

 Parents of children

 Patient

 Pregnant women

 Elderly people

iii Sample size

Many researchers had determined that the number of participants for each focus group was 8

to 12 According to Alan Wlison, he had provided in his Tex book that 8 to 12 participants was

popular number in using focus group for marketing research (Alan Wlison 2006) Another researcher also conducted his focus group at 8 participants (Kay et al 2015) On the other hand,

Yao had established 10 people for each group that his study focused on to find out the teacher

acceptation of classroom assessment (Yao 2015) Therefore, based on other previous researches

the current study will conduct 10 participants for each focus group

3.3 Collecting data

The main purpose of the focus group method of the present study is determining the acceptation and perception of Vietnamese customer for domestic walnut and foreign walnut However, the information that surrounding consumer behavior, analyzing is also needed to gather Therefore, the current research divided into two kinds of questions as below:

3.3.1 Individual question:

i Using questionnaires to gather information related to consumer behavior analysis named social, psychological, cultural and personal factors

ii Questionnaires sample

The seven steps used in establishing the questionnaires in the current research

Figure 3-2: Seven steps in establishing the questionnaires

Develop question topic

Select question and response formats

Select wording

Determine sequence

Design layout and appearancePilot test

Undertake survey

The present study used questionnaires to find the information that related to the four factors, which affected to consumer behavior such as cultural, social, personal, and psychological

3.3.2 Discussion question

Each group will discuss for 70 to 90 minutes in which the members will be interacting and discussion together to respond the answers to the moderator’s questions The questions will focus

on their acceptation and perception for Vietnamese walnut and imported walnut

A moderator will give the discussion questions The figure below will show an actual discussion guide uses for the moderator in the present study to find the acceptation and perception

of Vietnamese consumers for both foreign walnut and domestic walnut in Vietnam

Figure 3-4: Discussion plan

3.4 Analyzing qualitative data

There are five steps of analyzing qualitative data according to (Alan Wlison 2006) such as:

i Step 1: Organize the data

ii Step 2: Identify a framework

Discussion (80-90 minutes)

Acceptation Discussion (35- 40 minutes)

California Wanut

Chinese Walnut

Vietnamese Walnut Breaktime (10 minutes)

Percetion Discussion (35- 40 minutes)

California Walnut

Chinese Walnut

Vietnamese Walnut Summary ( 5-7 minutes)

iii Step 3: Sort data into the framework

iv Step 4: Use framework in descriptive analysis

v Step 5: Second order analysis

CHAPTER 4: RESULT ANALYSIS

4.1 Global walnut market overview

The walnut market in the world still increases in recent years The U.S continues to maintain the dominance situation in the global walnut trade In 2014, around 209 thousand tones

of walnuts exported from the U.S increasing 5% over the previous year The other big walnut suppliers in 2014 named Mexico and Chile However, the fastest growing exporters from 2007 to

2014 were Turkey (+40%/ year) and Chile (+23%/ year) In addition, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Turkey and Japan were the four top trading partners of the U.S with 43% share of total walnut exports The productivity of walnut is increasing in recent years due to the development of technologies and the raising of consumer demand Table 4.1 below will support to this

Table 4.1: The six countries have the highest productivity

rate on average

China 499074 475455 629986 828635 979366 1060600 16,3% USA 322051 317515 297555 395530 396440 457221 7,3% Iran 170000 185059 233544 230000 230000 270300 9,7% Turkey 150000 129614 172572 170897 177298 178142 3,5% Mexico 79871 68359 79162 79770 115350 76627 -0,8% Ukraine 91000 68750 82320 79170 83890 87400 -0,8% Total 1747613 1691500 1934180 2225319 2439745 2555090 7,9%

Source: WTO - World Trade Organization - Last available data

Even though the productivity of walnut is increasing every year, the price also raised due

to the expanding of consumer demand Table 4.2 will display for this in which walnut with the

shell is more expensive than shelled walnut 2 times

Table 4.2: The price on average of walnut in global market

Source: WTO - World Trade Organization - Last available data

The global walnut market increased too quickly in recent years Walnut became a popular product in the market even though not many countries could grow walnut trees to sell as well That

is why the trade of walnut broad all around the world The table 4.3 will demonstrate for this as below in which the USA achieves the first state in this list following the highest quality that California walnut supplied

Table 4.3: Exported walnut in rate (%)

The table 4.4 below will support for the enhanced of the walnut market in the world in which consumption is increasing every year

Table 4.4 : Walnut domestic consumption in major producing countries ( in tons)

Source: These estimates are based mainly on the USDA Agricultural Attaché’s Annual Tree Nuts Country Report

Increa-se 2003-05 over 1995-97 Chile

1,690 188,050 39,832 115,500 12,000 18,500 26,500 402,072

1,700 217,948 45,194 115,934 13,200 18,500 30,227 442,701

1,653 199,130 43,892 113,821 12,067 19,140 27,923 418,548

2,000 302,092 61,778 149,864 17,000 20,063 29,470 582,267

2,000 329,458 66,051 156,827 18,000 21,327 33,994 627,657

2,000 351,300 73,140 154,634 18,500 19,500 36,600 655,674

2,000 327,617 66,990 153,775 17,833 20,297 33,355 821,867

2,40 64,52 52,62 35,10 47,78 6,04 19,45 48,58

4.2 Vietnamese walnut market

4.2.1 Vietnam overview

Viet Nam has a total land area of 329,314 square kilometers and a coastline nearly 3,200 kilometers located in Southeast Asia In 64 cities and provinces, Hanoi in the north is the capital city with 6.45 million people while Ho Chi Minh City in the south is the largest urban area with 7.16 million(Vietnam General Statistics Office 2010) The GDP growth estimated 5.89% in 2012, which knew as a high rate in the world, but lower than past years because of the global economic crisis (figure 4.1)

Source: www.Tradingeconomics.com/ General statistics office of Vietnam

Figure 4.1: Vietnam GDP annual growth rate

4.2.2 Vietnam walnut market

According to Nate Schalabach and Doris Xu (2015), Vietnam had known as a big export destinations for California walnuts, which has not reduced imports The country imports, seven million more pounds of walnuts than China in the first three months of the 2014/15 season The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), of which the US and Vietnam are both members, is expected

to expand trade relations each year This leads the consumption of walnut in Vietnam still higher

in comparing with developing countries In addition, California walnut was the biggest supplier in the Vietnam market, according to the United States Department of Agriculture In 2009, around 10.000 tons California walnut was imported into Vietnam and 11.240 tons in 2011 equivalent 56.2% total imported walnut

Table 4.5: Walnut consumption in several countries including Vietnam in 2011

average (kg)

/person/ year

Source: United States Department of Agriculture

On the other hand, according to the Vietnam Department of Agriculture, China is also a big walnut supplier in Vietnam With the advantage at a reasonable price, Chinese walnut focused much more consumers especially for customers whose income is middle Moreover, Vietnamese

consumers prefer walnut with shell to others because of its natural taste which Chinese walnut is tend to focus on

Moreover, a researcher has pointed out in her own research that Vietnam is a potential

market for walnut to fill in (Hoang Thi Lua 2014) In addition, the table 4.5 above determines that

walnut consumption in Vietnam is a quite huge Why Vietnam is a potential market for walnut and how big it is are the main questions which will be answered below by a market research analysis

in several sites such as economic information, policy, demography, technology, culture, and nature 4.2.3 Economic information

Vietnam is a development success story The country had transformed from a poor country

to a development one after the Government launched the political and economic reforms in 1986 Vietnam’s per capita GDP growth averaging 5.5 percent a year since 1990, and 6.4 percent per year in the 2000s The GDP growth rate of the whole year in 2015 was 6.7 percent displayed that the economics of Vietnam continued increasingly

Vietnam had more and more free trade agreements with the Eurasian Economic Union, South Korea, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the European Union in order to improve its international trade In addition, after the establishing the ASEAN Economic Community more opportunities were created for the country to integrate into regional and global economies This leads Vietnamese approaches imported products as walnut easily

The development of economic creates a good foundation to develop the Vietnamese walnut market In fact, the income of Vietnamese is increasing as a result and they tend to improve the quality of lives by using services and products that bring much more advantages to them

Source: Boston consulting group

Figure 4.2: Vietnam income level estimation

In addition, wages in Vietnam are increasing which supports to improve the quality of life

of the Vietnamese The figure 4.3 will mention about this as below