World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 68

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

at producer and consumer levels). In
2005, the company stopped operating
because it faced various management
and logistics problems.

Since 2008, the NGO “Action for
the City” has supported a group of 70
organic vegetable growers (organized
into eight sub-groups) in Soc Son district
to provide home deliveries in Hanoi. To
date, 400 consumers have subscribed,
and the number is regularly increasing.
They pay for packs of vegetables delivered
weekly at stable prices (1 USD per kilo
for all types of vegetables all year round).
This NGO is also trying to develop
participatory certification of organic
production, based on inspections by
consumer groups and extension workers,
and the experience of ADDA.

Buying “safe vegetables” from
producer groups in shops give consumers
more reassurance because of face-toface interactions. Buying vegetables
from supermarkets also partially
reassures consumers because they link
supermarkets with expert systems
(which is debatable, as supermarkets
source “safe vegetables” from the same
sources as shops and the declared
system of additional sample analysis
that they perform is quite opaque).
A survey of 707 consumers in 2006
showed that the perceived “safeness” of
vegetables increased depending on the
location at which consumers purchased
their vegetables. The least “safe” was a
spontaneous purchase at an unknown
market. Trust in “safeness” increased,
moving from official markets, SV stalls
and shops, and finally, to supermarkets
(Mayer 2007). Another survey conducted
on 801 consumers in Hanoi and Haiphong
showed that for 60% of the consumers,

buying from familiar retailers is the best
way to ensure vegetable safety, while only
16% rely on certified products (Luuet al.
2005).

At the moment, the greatest
impediment to direct sales in Vietnam
is farmers’ lack of credit to get access
to market shops and stalls, all the more
so because available land is very limited
in the city. This is less the case in Laos,
where the authorities have set aside some
land for a weekly organic farmers’ market
in Vientiane.
Results in terms of vegetable safety

It is difficult to appraise the
results of different systems of guarantee
in terms of vegetable safety. First, it
is difficult to disentangle the effect of
the system of quality control from the
effect of production practices. Second,
high costs are involved in collecting
vegetable samples and carrying out
analyses of pesticides, nitrate, and
heavy metal residues, among others. We
conducted a study to compare the excess
pesticide residues in different points of
sale in 2005. Even though the sample is
relatively small (250 samples, between 25
and 70 for each type of points of sales),
we don’t know of other similar studies,
which makes the results valuable.
The sale points chosen include three
supermarkets, two SV market stalls; one
organic vegetable shop, two wholesale
markets, and two retail market spots.
The sampling was conducted three times
during the summer of 2005. To detect if
maximum residue limits were exceeded
we used quick tests based on Rapid
Bioassay of Pesticide Residue (RBPR),
as developed by Taiwan Agricultural
67