Companies in Vietnam are struggling to cope with rising costs during COVID-19

Many companies have closed or are struggling with increased overheads due to COVID-19. From January to the end of May, around 60,000 businesses across Germany closed, of which up to 31,800 were temporarily closed, while the rest have been closed or are about to close. Many others are struggling with rising production costs. Lý Kim Chi, president of the HCM City Food and Food Products Association, said companies have been grappling with rising costs for raw materials such as spices since the beginning of the year. The cost of making raw materials and items such as packaging and rubber gloves has also increased. Văn Khuôl, director of supply at Saigon Food Company, said COVID-19 will increase the cost of imported ingredients and prices could rise 10-25 percent in the third and fourth quarters, manufacturers urged the city of HCM to revise their plan to collect to postpone additional charges for the use of the port infrastructure. The city planned to do so from July 1 to raise funds to improve seaport infrastructure, and the association suggested postponing this plan until at least 2022.