Customers buy vegetable at a supermarket in Hanoi
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The Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) yesterday opened its first supermarket for safe agricultural products, on a trial basis at No 14, Mac Thai Tong street, Hanoi.
According to Chairman of VCA’s Board of Directors Pham Minh Tuan, the VCA has worked with nearly 200 cooperatives nationwide to build a trademark for safe Vietnamese agricultural products.
Customers can check the origin of products through bar codes on packaging, giving tighter control to localities to ensure product quality. More than 10 million farm households are expected to benefit from the new distribution channel, contributing to the “Vietnamese give priority for Vietnam’s products” campaign.
A representative of the Fivimart chain stressed the need to clearly define standards and conditions of licences and certificates, particularly for semi-processed animal products, and also make it easier for farmers to introduce more products to supermarkets.
Truong Kim Hoa, director of the centre for varieties and transfer of breeding procedures, said the centre is strong in producing safe agri-products and is ready to cooperate with farmers to produce quality products. Representatives of some cooperatives and breeding farms committed to following safe and organic production practices.
Hanoi has 157 large-scale fields and areas producing high-quality commercial rice, 157ha of fruit trees and over 80ha of tea meeting VietGap standards. The city also has 5,000ha for growing safe vegetables, including 352.7ha applying the VietGap standards and 40ha of organic vegetables.
The Capital city has 76 key poultry breeding communes and 3,232 farms outside residential areas. It has 11 supply chains for safe vegetables and 21 supply chains for products from farm animals.
Farmers should be encouraged to participate in cooperatives so that they will be guided in following VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards. Meanwhile, policies must be fine-tuned to promote the formation of big production chains.
In the near future, Hanoi will strive to put an end to the use of banned substances in animal husbandry, curb the smuggling of plant protection products, and control the use of antibiotics in livestock farming and aquaculture, the official noted.
The Farmers Union has joined the fight against unsafe food, by educating their members about harmful practices and popularising safe food production models in both crop and animal husbandry. Similar practices will be multiplied in other localities to help farmers minimise the overuse of plant protection products, inorganic fertilisers and chemicals.
