Fake candy appears in Tet gift baskets

This year, in the Tet gift baskets there are many products that imitate famous brands and are sold at cheap prices.

Mr. Nam (living in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City) said that a few days ago, a partner gave him a gift basket of 10 vacuum-sealed, carefully decorated items, but when he opened it, he discovered a box of cakes and a box of fake Thai chocolates.

“The barcode and information on the packaging all show that this is a Thai product, and even the brand name only changes the letter A to the letter O, so it is very difficult to recognize. Only when I opened the box and tried it did I dare to confirm that it was a fake product because the candy bars were broken, and some of them had an unpleasant, pungent smell like they had expired,” said Mr. Nam, adding that he had just contacted his partner to inform them that they had mistakenly purchased a poor quality gift basket.

Ms. Lan, a customer who bought a Tet gift basket at a store in District 5, also said that when she opened her gift basket, she discovered a product.Danisa is imitated as Damisa, Choco-Pie is imitated as Choco-Pai.

Danisa brand imitation cakes are included in Tet gift baskets. Photo: Phuong Dong.

Ms. Thanh, owner of a grocery store on Phan Van Tri Street (Binh Thanh District) said that Tet gift baskets using counterfeit branded products are much cheaper. Specifically, each gift basket with a full range of wines, soft drinks and candies costs from 200,000 to 345,000 VND, while if using high-end domestic products, this number can be 3 to 4 times higher, but the purchasing power is not strong.

“A 681 gram box of Danisa cookies produced with exclusive Danish technology and images when imported to Vietnam costs 186,000 VND, but if you use a fake product of this brand, it will cost less than 40,000 VND. Most of the customers here are workers and laborers with low income, so even though they know there are fake products in the gift basket, they still accept it because it is affordable, and they consider it as buying the Tet atmosphere,” Ms. Thanh shared.

Contacting the information on the packaging of the counterfeit products, the representative of the confectionery company based in Long An said that they are the manufacturer and distributor of these products for the Ho Chi Minh City market.

According to this person, the company is providing two product lines named Damisa and Oseo with the same wholesale price of 380,000 VND per box of 20 boxes, equivalent to 19,000 VND per box. In addition, there is also a line of metal box biscuits with a wholesale price twice as high.

“Although it is a fake brand of candy, it still has a shelf life of 1 year and is produced according to regulations to ensure quality and safety, without using artificial colorings and preservatives according to regulations issued by the Ministry of Health since 2001,” he said, affirming that although there are many orders near Tet, he still ensures enough quantity to supply customers within 1 day from the time the order is closed.

In addition to the above cake brands, other famous products are also being imitated such as Custard (imitation of the Custas brand), Silaté (similar to Solite), Oseo (imitation of Oreo) or Nucoti candy products (with names and packaging similar to Milkita milk candy), Kofeko (Kopiko candy) are also sold in the market.

Talking to VnExpress, Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Thao, Deputy General Director of Pham Nguyen Food and Confectionery Processing Company Limited, said that every time Tet comes, the amount of counterfeit Choco-Pie brand products increases sharply. The company has coordinated with authorities to detect counterfeiters many times but still cannot cover all of them. In particular, the market share of poor provinces in the Central region has decreased sharply due to the proliferation of counterfeit products. Most of the products are not inspected for origin and quality, and the price is many times lower than genuine products, which has greatly affected the company's business situation. Many packages of Choco-Pie cakes are counterfeited as Choco-Pai, but buyers find it difficult to distinguish because the size and packaging are designed to be as sophisticated as the real thing.

“To help consumers avoid buying counterfeit goods, in addition to working with market management agencies, we can only convince retailers to sell genuine products for the health of consumers and not be greedy for cheap prices,” said Ms. Thao.

Also stating that the counterfeit products are priced at one-third of the original price, the representative of the Danisa cake distributor said that most of these counterfeit products are mixed into Tet gift packages and sold to workers. In fact, because the price is so cheap, the quality of the products is very poor. The cakes do not smell good, are hard and not as rich as the genuine products. Notably, these products have the same information about ingredients, nutritional value, quality standards, etc. printed on the product packaging, making it difficult for consumers to distinguish. Therefore, consumers should go to reputable distribution facilities to buy.

According to VNE