World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 65

World Food Policy

1 to 10). There is an indication that the
number of such consumers will grow as
73% started buying SVs in the last five
years (Pham, Mol, and Oosterveer2009).
It was estimated that vegetables that
can be identified with PPD certification
represented less than 5% of the Hanoi
market (Moustier and Nguyen 2010a).
But farmers selling through “safe”
vegetable chains get higher incomes than
farmers selling through ordinary chains,
which explain a development of the
former (Moustier and Nguyen 2010b).

In summary, PPD certification
combined with the labeling as “safe
vegetables” is an expert system which
is of intermediate cost for farmers, and
moderately trusted by consumers.

government aims to ensure that VietGAP
is respected in half of all vegetables—
and tea-producing areas by 2015. A
total of 65 criteria have to be checked
in the VietGAP control, which costs
between 500 and 800 USD per hectare,
i.e., around 10 times more than the “safe
vegetable” certification system, which it
is due to replace. It is also found to be
very constraining by farmers to record all
their practices in terms of chemical use.
Countrywide, in 2011, VietGAP covered
75,000 hectares for all crops, i.e., 60,000
hectares for coffee and cocoa, 15,000
hectares for fruits, tea, and vegetables
(including 5,000 hectares for dragon
fruit)(information from the Department
of crop production of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development).
In Northern Vietnam, in the same year,
for vegetables, VietGAP was only used
by five state-subsidized enterprises and
three SV cooperatives (information from
Hanoi Department of Plant Protection).
This is particularly so because the
documentation procedures involved in
VietGAP are rewarded witha low price
premium (less than 10%) relative to
vegetables sold as safe (certified or not).

GlobalGAP is mostly used by
private exporters for fish and dragon fruit.
The problem of incentives for farmers to
adopt VietGAP or GlobalGAP for dragon
fruit in southern Vietnam, in a context
of lax control by importers of what is
labeled as GlobalGAP, and irregular
export channels, has also generated heavy
losses for farmers who have decided not
to renew their certification. GlobalGAP
has 300 criteria to be checked and
costs more than 3,000 USD per hectare
(Vietnam News 2012). The standards
set by the Chinese (organic, green,

b. GAP (Good Agricultural Practices)
Systems
The
more
rigorous
the
procedures, the more costly it gets for
producers or the community group that
supports them. The current VietGAP
system of certification for vegetables is
based on HACCP procedures. It has been
issued by the Vietnamese ministry of
agriculture in 2008, based on Aseangaps,
which have been developed by Australian
researchers to improve regional trade.
It requires producers to record their
practices and to inspect production
and post-harvest activities (internal
inspections) according to several food
safety criteria (the pesticides used, the
time between treatment and harvesting,
the place where pesticides are stored,
the organization of traceability, etc.). An
external auditor checks these internal
records using the producers’ registers
and information from the field. The
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