Vietnam’s beer giant targets Tet sales spike

Vietnam’s state-owned beer company, Habeco, plans to sell 146.8 million litres of beer during the upcoming Lunar New Year, known locally as Tet.

Habeco beer (photo credit: Habeco)

A report by local official news outlet, Bao Giao Thong, has said the targeted sales would be an year-on-year increase of 6.1%.

In the country’s capital, Ho Chi Minh, alone, beer consumption during Tet, which falls on 28 January, is forecast to jump 30% to roughly 40 million litres compared with last year, VnExpress.net wrote, citing figures released by the municipal Department of Industry and Trade.

The beer-swilling country guzzled down roughly 4.04 billion litres of beer in 2016 based on estimates by Euromonitor International, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Beer consumption in the country has jumped more than 40% in 2015 compared with 2010.

Last year the Vietnamese government announced its plans to divest large amounts of it shares in Habeco and another of its state-owned beer company Sabeco to raise funds for the country’s key infrastructure projects. It will sell 82% of its stake in Habeco for US$404 million, wrote Bloomberg.