Thousands of the finest dishes from these places are presented at 450 booths at the Tan Binh Exhibition and Convention Center on 446 Hoang Van Thu Street, Tan Binh District.

The event, named “Connecting Supply with Demand”, has attracted more than 2,300 businesses bringing a wide range of specialties from the northern, central, Central Highlands and southern regions.

Visitors can take home many items favored across the country including edible swift bird’s nest, lotus leaf tea, royal jelly, ginseng wine and sesame cakes.

Residents have been thronging the exhibition and buying the items on sale, especially those not normally available, like flavored, dried beef and buffalo meat from the northern mountainous region, dried tuna from Phu Yen Province and cashew nuts grown in the Central Highlands.

These highly nutritious swift bird’s nests were once a luxury item reserved only for emperors. Now, in the modern era, more people have access to them. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Hac.

Ly Kim Chi, chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Food and Food Association, said the event would open up opportunities for businesses to exchange and share information as well as for domestic brands to develop and expand their reach.

A report by market research firm Kantar Worldpanel also said that this year, as of June 16, a Vietnamese person in rural areas consumed 56 packs of instant noodles on average, up 5 percent year-on-year. The corresponding figure in urban areas was 36 packs, up 4 percent.

Around 90 percent of Vietnamese households bought instant noodles in that period, it said.

Instant noodles are bought at different channels and they are priced differently, too, the report said. An average noodle pack costs VND4,200 (18 cents) in traditional markets, VND5,300 (23 cents) in mini stores and VND5,500 (24 cents) in supermarkets.

Kantar said that although the instant noodles market was now in a ” slow-growth maturity stage,” there were still opportunities for manufacturers to attract more customers with new products, giving them a competitive edge.

However, for a new product to be successful, brands need to make “an outstanding offer to a sizable consumer need” and have effective launches, it added.

Vietnam was the world’s fifth largest instant noodles consumer last year with 5.2 billion servings, a 2.8 percent increase from 2017, according to the World Instant Noodles Association.