VietNamNet Bridge – Unaware of how high the formula prices in Vietnam are in comparison with the other regional countries, unconscious of the market shares being held by enterprises, uncaring about the market prices--the Ministry of Finance’s Price Control Agency is now incurring the heavy fire of public opinion.

An inter-ministerial meeting was gathered on March 4 to discuss the solutions to curb the formula price increases. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Head of the Price Control Agency told the press after the meeting finished: “MOF has been always keeping a close watch over the formula prices and taking drastic measures to control the prices since 2003.”

However, the heads of the same agency, at a discussion late last week, admitted that they did not have much information about the formula price.

When asked about the market shares being held by dairy producers, Tuan said: “We still cannot reckon up how many formula trade companies there are in the country. We only control the price declarations by six producers. However, we do not have necessary materials to know how many percents of the market share the companies are holding.”

“We think that the companies hold 60 percent of the market share,” he added. “If you want to know about the market shares held by dairy producers, you should ask the business registration agencies.

Replying to the consumers’ complaints that the formula prices in Vietnam are overly high if compared with the prices in other regional countries, Tuan said: “We have not compared the prices” and “I wish some agencies can help us figure out the issue.”

The Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) once released a report about the dairy industry in Vietnam. However, Tuan said the research was not reliable enough, because it did not compare the products’ prices. Meanwhile, a dairy producer may have up to 30 different products.

When asked about the outcomes of the inspection tours in late 2013, Tuan said this was the duty of the market management force, therefore, he had nothing to inform to the press.

Also according to him, it is also the task of the inspectors and the market management force to clarify if Nestle and Friesland Campina spontaneously raised the formula prices while they were still working with MOF to explain why they intended to raise the prices.

Meanwhile, at another meeting with the press, Deputy Head of the Price Control Agency Dinh Thi Nuong said the agency receives the information about the price increases through… phones and enterprises’ reports.

According to Nuong, prior to January 31, the agency’s officers called dairy producers and suppliers to ask about the pricing and received the answers that they would not raise prices.

On February 24, the agency’s officers discovered through newspapers that the formula prices had been raised. They immediately called the enterprises to ask for information.

However, they received two different answers. At first, an officer of Nestle affirmed that Nestle had not raised the selling prices yet. Later, when the officers showed the articles on newspapers, the PR director of the company admitted the company had raised the prices since February 1.

Pham Huyen