World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 66

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

and pollution-free), Thai (Q-Mark),
and Malaysian authorities (Malaysia
Best) are reported to have only limited
adoption (Shepherd and Tam 2008). In
Thailand, the Royal Project introduced
GAP and certification for more than
2,600 mountain horticultural producers,
but it is still heavily dependent on Royal
funding, e.g., in terms of packaging,
control, and marketing (Jayamangkala
2008). As regards GAP certification for
pineapple in Thailand, it is adopted quite
widely, the main factors of adoption
being the price premium, contracts
with buying companies and farmers’
age. The Department of Agriculture
monitors farmers’ practices on a regular
basis and awards GAP certificates
(Sriwichailamphanet al. 2008).

In summary, VietGAP and
GlobalGAP are costly systems for farmers
with little development so far. It was not
possible to evaluate consumers’ trust in
these systems as vegetables certified as
VietGAP are little available in the market.

results first in a warning then a sanction
in the form of excluding the farmer from
using the group label. This, combined
with external inspections by a research
institute accredited by the PPD, enabled
an 18-member group to obtain VietGAP
certification in 2005, which was not
renewed subsequently due to its cost.
The Internal Control System (ICS) is now
used as a communication strategy for the
group in its marketing and it helps them
to obtain “safe vegetable” certification
from the PPD. It was interesting to
note that the effectiveness of recording
was unequal among producers: from
30% to 80% for each of the four groups.
Adoption was higher the younger and
the more educated the members, and
the smaller the group (Nguyen 2009). At
any rate, the internal control system is
fragile, because it requires a lot of time,
but farmers do not yet feel the pressure or
receive incentives from the government
or the market to sustain this internal
control system.

ICS combined with PPD certification

Organic vegetables control

In the Superchain project, we
worked with four groups of vegetable
farmers in the district of Hoai Duc,
located in Hanoi Province, which
represented a total of 140 households. We
identified as critical points determining
excesses in pesticide residues the
type of pesticides used and the delay
between spraying and harvest. These
were monitored by farmers themselves
in a notebook and by a monitoring
committee made of a group of farmers in
the cooperative, who checked monthly
the validity of the records and filled out a
five-page questionnaire. Noncompliance

Since 1999, organic vegetable
production is developing around Hanoi,
following training programs by a Belgium,
then a Danish NGO (ADDA). In 2009, 69
farmers of Soc Son district were following
organic production specifications (which
have been the subject of a public standard
in 2008). Twenty-four conditions for
organic production are included in
the specifications. An internal control
system is established and operated by the
group leaders. The conditions are verified
in order for Participatory Guarantee
System (PGS) certification to be issued.
Until 2010, the certification process was
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