Post-Covid health care, nutritional products are in high demand

In March, the entire family of Mr. Thai Dung (Hung Loc, Vinh City) including 6 members were infected with Covid-19. 10 days later, all members tested negative but ate less, had difficulty sleeping and felt weak. Listening to the advice of colleagues who had previously contracted Covid-19, he decided to buy bird's nest,Cordyceps, lotus seeds to steam for the whole family to nourish and restore health.

Mr. Thai Dung said: “The 300g of bird’s nest I ordered from a reputable place cost 15 million VND, 300g of fresh cordyceps cost 2 million VND, wolfberry, red apple, lotus seed, chia seed cost another 500 thousand VND. Nearly 20 million VND for the whole family to recover from Covid. According to the advice, eating 3 times a week, continuously for several months is effective, so if enough for a course of treatment for 6 members, it would cost 60-70 million VND, a huge amount of money, but to recover health, we have to “bite the bullet”.

Bird's nest shops said that the consumption of this product has increased by one and a half times, even double compared to before Tet. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Normally, bird's nest is considered a luxury food because the price is quite expensive, so it is difficult to find customers. However, in the past few months, the number of F0 cases has increased, so this item is very popular. Ms. Tran Nguyet, an online bird's nest seller, said: "Recently, the amount of bird's nest I sold has increased by 50% compared to before. There were times when the goods were "out of stock" when there were many buyers but the goods could not arrive in time. Especially, like cordyceps, sometimes customers' orders were missed for a whole month because of the scarce supply. Prices of all kindsnutritious foodThis also increased by 20-30% compared to before".

Not only raw bird's nests, bird's nests but also pre-cooked bird's nests are very popular. On average, Ms. Ho Le, a pre-cooked bird's nest seller in Le Loi ward (Vinh city) receives orders of 100-150 jars of pre-cooked bird's nests per day, mainly from acquaintances. Ms. Le said: "Before, I only cooked sweet soup to sell. Since the pandemic last year, I have added pre-cooked bird's nests. Now it is the beginning of summer, but I only focus on pre-cooked bird's nests due to the high demand from customers, while cooking bird's nests is quite laborious and each person has their own requirements for different flavors. There are days when the orders are overloaded, we have to mobilize more workers to process bird's nests, package and deliver to customers."

Many bird's nest cooking facilities have to mobilize more workers to meet customer orders. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Due to the increased demand, bird's nest products are sometimes scarce and prices are high. According to business owners, bird's nest prices are currently 20-30% higher than the same period last year..In the current market, raw bird's nests without feathers are priced from 2.5 - 3 million VND/100g; refined bird's nests from 4 - 5 million VND/100g; raw bird's nests from 2.2 - 2.7 million VND/100g; blood bird's nests from 7 - 10 million VND/100g; white bird's nests from 5 - 7 million VND/100g; broken bird's nests from 500,000 - 1 million VND/100g. Pre-processed bird's nest sets (including wolfberry, red apple, lotus seed, chia seed) are priced from 450,000 - 500,000 VND/set; ready-to-cook bird's nests are priced from 80,000 - 180,000 VND/jar (depending on the volume and accompanying medicinal herbs). Tools such as bird's nest stewing jars, double-boiler bird's nest stewing pots... are also very "in demand".

Along with bird's nest, cordyceps, ginseng, saffron... are also chosen by many consumers to nourish their families during the epidemic season. In addition, pharmacies also simultaneously launched functional foods advertised as "post-Covid-19 nutritional supplements" with all kinds of grains, vitamins... priced from a few hundred thousand VND/box to tens of millions of VND.

Cordyceps is a rather rare commodity and its price is increasing at the present time. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Mr. Nguyen Huu Hoan, owner of a pharmacy in Do Luong town, said: “During this time, the number of people buying Covid-19 treatment drugs and test kits has decreased, while the number of people buying functional foods and vitamins has increased, about a few dozen customers per day. In particular, we focus on products containing ingredients of high-quality medicinal herbs such as lingzhi mushrooms, cordyceps, ginseng, etc.

On social networking sites, functional foods advertised as having the effect of nourishing the body and being good for the lungs are also widely sold with all kinds from domestically produced to imported from England, Australia, Japan, Korea... and the number of people ordering is quite large.

People also choose functional foods and vitamins to supplement nutrients after being infected with Covid-19. Photo: Thanh Phuc

It is necessary to restore health after illness. In addition to supplementing with foods in daily meals, you can also supplement with functional foods. However,consumersBe extremely careful when choosing nutritional products suitable for each subject, because the use of functional foods is like a "double-edged sword", if supplemented incorrectly, it will cause many consequences for health. Along with that, the situation of poor quality nutritional products also appears quite a lot and is difficult to control./.