Changing food consumption patterns in rural and urban Vietnam: Implications for a future food supply system

Abstract

Rapid income growth and urbanisation could significantly change the composition of the food basket in many emerging economies. This study estimates a demand system, including 15 major food items in Vietnam, with multiyear household survey data. We find a large variation in the estimated price elasticities (-0.05 to -0.88) and expenditure elasticities (-0.16 to 2.56). Food types, urban status and income groups can explain this variation. We also find that the staple food, rice, is already an inferior good for rich urban households in Vietnam. Moreover, food preferences are evolving away from rice but towards animal proteins (fish, pork, chicken, eggs and milk), fruits and vegetables, irrespective of urban status and income groups. As the Vietnam economy continues to grow with a doubling of gross domestic product (GDP) in the next decade, per capita rice consumption in both urban and rural areas and across different income groups will continue to decline, whereas demand for other high-value products will rise. Thus, government policy should focus on encouraging demand-oriented food production. In addition, crop diversification at the farm level needs to improve substantially to meet the rising demand for these food products due to income growth and urbanisation.

Nutrition transition in Vietnam: changing food supply, food prices, household expenditure, diet and nutrition outcomes

“…Cassava is also an important food security crop particularly in highland areas where ethnic minorities with poorer nutrition live, with similar implications. Beyond staple foods however, making nutrient-rich foods more accessible and nutrient-poor or ultra-processed foods less accessible is important if additional income is to contribute to a healthy diet (Bairagi et al 2020).…”

The Food Environments of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in East and Southeast Asia: A Systematic Review

“…One study found a change in the pattern of FV consumption: Urban dwellers consumed more fruit and less grain-based food, possibly the result of the higher standard of living that followed urbanization [ 48 ]. The study also reported that the increase in FV consumption was faster in urban areas, with the urban population preferring FVs instead of rice, regardless of their urban status and income [ 47 ]. The demand for high-value food such as FVs increased significantly, as urban consumers consumed 114% more fruit than their rural counterparts [ 38 ].…”

Supermarkets and Household Food Acquisition Patterns in Vietnam in Relation to Population Demographics and Socioeconomic Strata: Insights From Public Data

“…Using VHLSS data we calculated the following household-level socioeconomic variables: (1) per capita expenditure (USD) 4 ; (2) proportion of food acquired from purchases (i.e., the proportion of food consumed that originated from purchased source over the total amount of consumed food); (3) location of households (i.e., dummy variable equal to 1 if the household is located in an urban area and equal to 0 otherwise); (4) household size, and (5) characteristics of the head of household including ethnicity, ender, and education level. These variables have been previously used to study the impact of socioeconomic characteristics on Vietnamese food consumption previously (Trinh et al, 2018a,b;Kim et al, 2019;Bairagi et al, 2020).…”