VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of businessmen have tried to develop safe food distribution chains. However, they meet too many obstacles.

Distributing safe food is believed to be a profitable business field in Vietnam, where people all get afraid of unsafe food, i.e. the vegetables with high pesticide residues and the meat with prohibited substances. Housewives are willing to pay higher than usual to be able to get safe vegetables.

However, Vietnamese businessmen still keep reluctant to grow safe vegetables and develop clean vegetable distribution chains. It is very difficult to find safe vegetable sale points in HCM City, while the products available at the shops are not diversified enough for consumers’ choice.

Dang Thi Tuoi in Binh Thanh district in HCM City said she cannot find organic vegetables because she does not have time to look for safe vegetable sale points.

Tuoi said she still has been buying vegetables at traditional markets, though she feels worried about the origin and the quality of the products. It will take too much time to go to organic vegetable shops, which are very rare in the city. Meanwhile, the food at supermarkets is more reliable, but it always takes time to wait for making payment.

While housewives wish to see more safe vegetable shops, merchants still unassertive to expand their distribution networks because they are not sure about the competitiveness of the products.

In general, safe vegetables at the shops are 10-20 percent more expensive than the products sold at traditional markets, while buyers are not sure that the vegetables are really “safe.”

Meanwhile, enterprises, in order to develop clean food distribution chains, would have to make heavy investments in the infrastructure items, slaughtering, preservation technologies, and develop the distribution networks.

Truong Vinh Thien, Director of Vinh Thanh Dat Company, said the limited financial capability makes it impossible to develop the production chains.

In principle, producers need to cooperate with each others in order to diversify the products to be distributed. However, the producers cannot find a common voice to implement the plans.

While domestic enterprises still keep reluctant, foreign investors have been moving ahead with the plans to expand the distribution networks.

Some domestic enterprises, though having stated that they would open a series of retail shops, have not poured money to implement the plan. Only several shops have been set up, which, according to analysts, just aim to help popularize the brands and support the exports rather than to boost domestic sales.

The majority of producers have been selling their products through supermarkets, retail shops or petty merchants instead of setting up distribution networks of their own.

The common characteristic of agriculture producers is that they gather more strength on export, while they have been very reluctant to expand the domestic market, even in the clean vegetable market segment, which is believed to be inaccessible for foreign enterprises.

G.a.p Company in Da Lat has been specializing in exporting vegetables and fruits to the Japanese and Russian markets, while it only decided to open a clean vegetable shop in HCM City in late 2012 to explore the market.

The Tan Dong Production and Trade Company has also been focusing on exporting farm produce to the European market over the last 10 years. It has just decided to sell products in the domestic market at two newly opened shops, Rau Ngon and Vefa in Binh Thanh district in HCM City.

Nam Phong