World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 56

The Role of Proximity and Standards in Guaranteeing Vegetable Safety in Vietnam

supermarkets, fast-food chains, and
exports in Asian countries are described
by Pingali (2006) as the main drivers
for change in the food systems. Private
standards are developed by supermarkets
as substitutes for nonexistent or
inadequate public standards (Reardon,
Timmer, and Berdégué 2008).

The following section investigates
some literature insights on what are the
ways for suppliers to answer consumers’
concerns about food safety.

food safety. In what follows, we present
what is stated to be the advantages and
limits of two mechanisms of quality
assurance: proximity between farmers
and consumers, and standards.
In Asia
a. Definitions

In the literature, proximity
between producers and consumers—
be it geographical or relational (the
two being partially related)—is said
to be advantageous to transactions in
various respects. Geographical or spatial
proximity relates to the “kilometric
distance that separates two units”
(Torre and Rallett 2005, 49). Relational
proximity—equivalent to organized
proximity according to Torre (2000)—
relates to the interactions between
stakeholders. It has also been defined as
a mutual alignment of interests based
on combinations of power relations,
trust, and management of social factors
(Murphy 2012). It is said to rest on
common representations and values
(termed as cognitive proximity by BoubaOlga and Grossetti (2008)), a capital of
trust and interpersonal relations.

Literature insights on food safety
assurance systems

F

ood safety refers to credence
attributes, i.e., attributes not directly
observable by the user, which create
the most uncertainty concerning quality
(Darby and Karni 1973), relative to search
and experience attributes (Nelson 1970).
Credence attributes generate information
asymmetries between farmers and
consumers, which cannot be entirely dealt
with by trust and reputation, in contrast
to experience attributes (Caswell and
Modjuska 1996). Labeling commodities
with some mandatory information on
the production processes is an answer to
these issues. Monitoring by consumers
or experts paid by consumers is another
option (Darby and Karni 1973). The
credibility of labeling is strengthened by
third-party certification, which implies
standardization and testing (Bonroy
and Constantatos 2008). In addition to
the literature on labels and standards
as answers to food safety problems,
there is growing documentation
of ”reconnection” or proximity of
agriculture with food consumption as
ways to reassure consumers in terms of

b. The advantages of geographical proximity

The role of geographical proximity
in the supply of perishable crops was
modelled by Von Thünen in the first
analysis of agricultural land use according
to location done in 1826 (Huriot 1994).
According to Von Thünen’s model, land is
allocated according to the use which brings
the highest land rent, and can be sketched
as concentric circles relative to the city
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