People buy cooking oil at a supermarket in HCM City. Photo tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY — Retail businesses in HCM City said that the prices of many essential goods such as cooking oil, sugar, flour, milk, and noodles had to be hiked due to the knock-on effect of the sharp increase in fuel prices.

Acecook Vietnam Joint Stock Company has increased the prices of many products by 10 per cent after many years.

According to the company, the costs of raw materials, fuel and transport have all increased every year, but it has been making an effort to control prices, but it is now forced to increase them.

Phạm Thị Huân, general director of Ba Huân Co, the country’s biggest egg producer, said while costs had increased by 20-30 per cent, demand remained low because many schools had not reopened yet.

Though the company has not hiked prices, Huân said, "We hope demand will increase so that we can keep prices unchanged, but if the demand is too low we will have to hike prices.”

Cooking oil prices are up sharply since before the Tết (Lunar New Year).

Other essential goods’ prices have increased by 5-20 per cent and are expected to increase further if petroleum prices continue to increase.

The prices of many essential items have increased by 10-30 per cent, and food and beverage service prices have also increased by 10-15 per cent.

Retailers are worried since demand has fallen sharply due to COVID-19 as people tightened spending, and any further hike in prices would cause sales to plummet further.

Steel, wood and other industries are also seeing a rise in prices of raw materials.

Trần Việt Anh, deputy chairman of the HCM City Rubber Association, said raw materials were up 30 per cent. — VNS