Saigon Co.op signs deal to spur farm produce quality By Quoc Hung - The Saigon Times Daily HCMC – The country’s leading retailer Saigon Co.op signed an agreement with the Food and Agricultural Products Quality Development and Control Project on Monday to control the quality of agricultural products supplied to consumers. Under the deal, Saigon Co.op will apply Good Production Practices to improve the quality of agricultural products based on the overall approach throughout the whole value chain ‘from farm to table’. With 50 Co.opMart, 17 Co.op Food and 90 Co.op stores, Saigon Co.op is the first retailer in Vietnam selected to join the project’s activities. Under the deal, the Project, which is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency, will help Saigon Co.op improve its current fruit and vegetable handling and packaging process from buying to distributing. Particularly, the Project will provide Saigon Co.op with technical advice for … [Read more...] about Saigon Co.op signs deal to spur farm produce quality
Farm produce signs
Vietnam to continue exploiting farm produce exports in 2011
VietNamNet Bridge - Experts believe that the progress in farm produce exports in 2010 will continue in 2011, especially when the world market is showing good signs for seafood, coffee and rubber products. However, they think that the rice exports may decrease. The forecasts are from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) latest report on the farm produce market and Vietnam's key export items in 2011. … [Read more...] about Vietnam to continue exploiting farm produce exports in 2011
Farm produce prices escalating, but farmers cannot pocket profits
VietNamNet Bridge - The prices of farm produce such as rice, coffee and pepper have been escalating, but farmers do not benefit from the price increases. Farmers are the "outsiders" According to Professor Vo Tong Xuan, a well known agricultural expert in Vietnam, though the rice price has been increasing steadily, now selling at 6000 dong per kilo. Only the farmers who harvest the winter-spring crop late and summer-autumn soon can get profits, while the ones who harvest the winter-spring crop soon cannot. Most of the profits have been falling into the hands of food companies and small merchants. … [Read more...] about Farm produce prices escalating, but farmers cannot pocket profits
Farm produce trading: regulation doesn’t encourage contracting
In order to march towards a modern competitive agricultural production which operates in accordance with market rules, it’s necessary to reform the current legal framework on farm produce transactions. Farmers in the passive voice In general, enterprises have a hold over farmers in farm produce transactions. In principle, the parties in the active voice would set up the contract provisions beneficial to them. And the parties in the active voice are always enterprises, while farmers, who generally do not take care for contract provisions and the legitimacy, are always in the passive voice. Besides, farmers do not have many opportunities to get involved in big trade deals and do not well understand businesses’ performance, the market price fluctuations and the government’s policies. Therefore, they seem to be “ignorant” about necessary information. A lawyer has said that most of the provisions in the contracts are compiled and set up by enterprises, … [Read more...] about Farm produce trading: regulation doesn’t encourage contracting
Experts warn Chinese will continue collecting farm produce in Vietnam
Vietnamese processors have been warned that Chinese businessmen would continue flowing to Vietnam to scramble for farm produce, advising domestic enterprises to apply necessary measures to effectively compete with them. In fact, Chinese businessmen have been going to Vietnam to collect farm produce for the last few years. However, observers say they have never collected such big amounts of products and with such regular frequency. There has been no sign showing that Chinese businessmen would stop collecting materials one. The presence of Chinese businessmen in Vietnam has been pushing the prices up, thus putting a heavy burden on Vietnamese consumers. Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said in previous years, Chinese businessmen came to collect shrimp materials directly from farmers. Meanwhile, this year, they also collect other kinds of seafood from offshore fishing boats and ashore. Due to the material … [Read more...] about Experts warn Chinese will continue collecting farm produce in Vietnam