Hanoians want safe veggies, but supply is inefficient

The demand for safe vegetables in the capital city of Hanoi is increasing. However, supply remains limited due to inadequate links between supply and demand.

Potential market

Nguyen Thi Mai Anh, deputy director of the Hanoi Promotion Agency, said that with more than 10 million citizens and over 21 million tourists, Hanoi needs a large amount of safe food and foodstuff, while production capacity of the agricultural sector only meets 55-60 percent of the demand.

Safe vegetables are mainly collected by individual traders and distributed in wholesale markets, making management of agricultural product quality difficult.

Nguyen Thi Thoa, head of the Department of Crop Production under the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the capital has a total vegetable growing area of 12,000ha with more than 40 varieties, mainly winter-spring crops. Vegetable output is nearly 600,000 tonnes per year, meeting about 60 percent of the demand. In particular, Hanoi has more than 5,000ha of vegetables cultivated according to VietGAP standards for an annual output of nearly 400,000 tonnes.

Promoting cooperation

A recent conference focused on ways to connect safe vegetable supply and demand, providing opportunities for typical production facilities in Ha Nam, Hung Yen and Hai Duong provinces, as well as businesses and cooperatives, to introduce their products to distributors.

Nguyen Huu Hung, director of the Yen Phu Safe Vegetable Cooperative (Me Ha Village, Yen Phu Commune, Yen My District, Hung Yen Province), said the cooperative produces organic vegetables, with many products being sold in clean food stores.

Trinh Danh Tung, director of the Linh Nam Vegetable Cooperative in Hanoi, said the cooperative is seeking opportunities for sale of safe vegetables, as well as new technologies to produce clean vegetables.

The Hanoi People’s Committee is encouraging production of safe vegetables via a number of regulations and mechanisms. However small-scale production has posed difficulties for management agencies. In addition, consumers are having a hard time finding safe vegetables with clear indications of origin.

Tran Viet Hung, director of the VietRAP Investment Joint Stock Company, pointed to another difficulty – a lack of regulations to protect distributors of agricultural products when farmers violate their supply contracts.