Green, environmentally friendly products are increasingly appearing in the Hue market.

Similarly, Ms. Hoang Kim Hoang, my college friend who now works at Phong Dien Industrial Park, said that on busy days she often orders food online. She usually looks for restaurants that use environmentally friendly, reusable materials, such as paper or bamboo cups, boxes, and straws, or sugarcane pulp.

"Greening lifestyles and promoting sustainable consumption means combining beautiful traditional lifestyles with civilized, modern means to create a better life," said Ms. Kim Hoang.

At a workshop connecting provincial businesses with technology transfer and innovation activities organized by the Department of Science and Technology in mid-December 2023, the Chairman of the Provincial Business Association, Mr. Duong Tuan Anh, shared that the Vietnamese consumer goods market is gradually developing in depth. Consumers not only value very basic factors such as perceived quality, durability, and price, but also pay more attention to factors such as safety, freshness, nutritional information, origin, product uses and features, or quality certifications. Therefore, businesses need to adapt and transfer innovative technologies to ensure credibility in production and business, thereby maintaining their brand and building a healthy and civilized business and consumer environment.

Currently, modern supermarket and retail systems play a significant role in bringing green and clean products closer to consumers because most are controlled in terms of quality, design, and price, with professional distribution and logistics systems. Many supermarkets and convenience stores have implemented programs to promote green consumption trends and encourage people to use environmentally friendly packaging. However, widespread adoption of these models is not yet easy. This requires a long-term roadmap with many specific solutions tailored to the local population, because the cost of producing green goods and products remains high.

An economic expert argues that many trends regarding the use of biodegradable materials like plastic bags, banana leaves, and sugarcane bagasse for packaging quickly lose momentum due to their lack of convenience, durability, and affordability compared to conventional plastic packaging. Furthermore, in the context of rapidly developing e-commerce, online shopping habits have led to a rapid increase in the use of plastic bags and containers, as environmentally friendly packaging often fails to meet the criteria of being "durable, inexpensive, and convenient" when transporting food and consumer goods.

To make green products more popular, appropriate mechanisms, policies, and support programs from relevant agencies and localities are needed to encourage green and sustainable production and consumption models, as well as businesses that produce and supply environmentally friendly products. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen awareness campaigns so that consumers increasingly pay attention to, learn about, and gradually change their tastes and consumption habits towards sustainable and environmentally friendly products.

Text and photos: MINH HOÀI