Spire Consultant, Putri Intan Sari, gave an update on the market environment in Indochina at a recent webinar.

Organized by the Malaysian Franchise Association, MFA, on 14 July 2022, the webinar featured speakers from Spire and Matrade, the National Trade Promotion Agency of Malaysia. Putri shared an overview of recent trends in the food and beverage, retail, and service industries in Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand.

Discussing growing trends, Putri said that the online sales channel is much more popular in the food industry as compared to the offline channel. Items like baby food, confectionary, and snacks saw the highest growth in the food category. Statistics show that Myanmar’s food market grew by 11% between 2016-2021. Moreover, the country also saw an increase in the number of US fast food chains like KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King.

Food and beverage accounted for 20.5% of the total household spending in Vietnam, with junk food gaining popularity. On the beverage industry, Putri shared that the recent trend saw a shift in consumers’ focus toward low-calorie, gluten-free drinks and non-alcoholic beers.

The service industry in Indochina is highly dominated by tourism. 39.92 million tourists visited Thailand in 2019. Some of the most popular tourist destinations in the Indochina region are Krabi, Bangkok, Ha Noi, Rangoon, and Phuket.

Putri also discussed the new trends in the retail industry. Thailand saw a change in the shopping behavior of consumers. The online channel grew with e-commerce platforms, social media, and retail websites. Vietnam also noted similar shopping behaviors post-pandemic.