HCMC has plans to develop an additional 2,000 convenience stores and nearly 50 supermarkets throughout the city by 2025, which will help control food origins more strictly and provide safe food products for consumers, Nguyen Huynh Trang, deputy director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, told a conference titled “Eat Clean – Live Green” held on December 13 in the city’s Dam Sen Theme Park.

Local workers of Phuoc Thinh Cooperative in Long An Province, which currently supplies safe food products for HCMC, are processing veggie products. By 2025, the city plans to open 2,000 more convenience stores and 50 supermarkets

The city currently boasts 204 supermarkets, 44 shopping malls, over 2,300 convenience stores, three wholesale markets and over 500 traditional wet markets that provide daily food products for households in the city, Trang said.

The municipal department wants modern goods distributors such as supermarkets and convenience stores to become the driving force for market growth. They will provide clean, locally made high-quality products, with clear origins and labels for consumers.

However, the sales of modern distributors account for merely 30% of the retail sector’s total revenue, while those of wholesale and traditional markets make up the majority.

Therefore, the modern retail distributors in the coming time will have to purchase commodities from suppliers that guarantee clear product origins and meet prevailing food safety requirements.

As for the food safety issue, Pham Khanh Phong Lan, head of the HCMC Food Safety Management Board, noted that the board had clinched deals with partners from Long An and Lam Dong provinces, in which the latter are in charge of supplying high-quality daily food staples for supermarkets and food convenience stores in the city.

Under the deals, food safety control will be strictly enforced from the production and harvesting stages to the processing and packaging phases.

The event, co-organized by the Vietnam Women’s Union in HCMC and VinMart supermarket chain, gathered more than 500 women in the city. It is expected to help local women raise their awareness of food safety to improve their quality of life.

SGT