New market for safety in food chain

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The agricultural expert, Mr. Hoang Trong Thuy.

In recent times, both the central authorities and local authorities have boosted the formation and development of the safe food chain to diversify fresh supply, gradually removing the problems of unsafe food. What do you think about this move?

In general, many issues related to the safety of the food chain have had remarkably positive changes with outstanding improvement steps for nearly 1 year. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have also had more positive solutions. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed to boost the production of safe food; and more enterprises have invested to produce fresh and safe agricultural products with a higher quality in the domestic market. However, these achievements are only in the initial stage. In fact, there are many other issues without the obvious changes such as legal framework and the restructure of the food market to bring safe agricultural products to the majority of consumers. These problems are the cause for the restrictions of sustainable development of clean and fresh agricultural market.

For many companies, despite the application of professional methods from production to consumption, the network of safe food consumption is still relatively modest. The sale points still mainly concentrate on urban areas with a small volume compared to the actual demand. In addition, the sale points have only aimed at consumers in the middle class, so ordinary consumers are still inaccessible to the network of safe food. It is expected that in the next few years, the situation will change and safe agricultural products will overwhelm and replace all unsafe food.

Where is the key reason for the elimination of unclean food and the promotion of safe agricultural products in the supply chain, Sir?

Nowadays, people are more aware of the increasing number of people dying from cancer which is related to the origin of unclean food. In addition, a series of food poisoning cases in industrial zones have also raised concerns over the quality of food. With the active participation of the press and media agencies, consumers have paid more attention to this issue. Therefore, fresh food markets come from the maturity in the awareness of the society about food, which requires the Ministries and local authorities to strengthen cooperation and reorganize the market, bringing safe food to consumers and protect the health of consumers.

For enterprises, they need to have a rapid and proper evaluation of the market, invest in safe food production and launch their products at the right time, then they will succeed. Furthermore, active participation in the first stage will help enterprises enjoy support and incentives to increase their competitiveness in the field of agricultural products. I believe these enterprises will become more successful in production and sales as well as bring more benefits to the community.

If we evaluate all stages in the supply chain of safe food at present, what is the weakest stage, Sir?

Currently, the linking in the supply chain of safe food is quite poor. I argue that the stage of reorganization of the market as well as the retail stage to consumers remains the weakest. It comes from poor media coverage which makes consumers lack the knowledge and skills to distinguish between safe products and unsafe products, which has reduced the strength and competitiveness of food safety.

In recent times, many enterprises in the supply chain of safe food have been in trouble and they decided to "give up the games". What policies do we need to support the manufacturing and development of these enterprises?

The support of enterprises, especially potential enterprises with good ideas, motivation and development of safe food markets is necessary. Therefore, the policies supporting enterprises should focus on taxes such as land tax and corporate income tax. In addition to support from the State, enterprises also need to promote the connection with consumers by themselves, through convenient sale points. For example, enterprises can be associated with a trade union of organizations to sell their products to workers. Accordingly, enterprises will be committed to high quality and responsible for the insecurity of consumers’ health. These are experiences from many successful enterprises in the field of safe vegetables in suburbs of Hanoi.

Can you tell us that in the long run, what should we do to expand the sustainable development of the safe food chain for more and more consumers to use instead of a part of urban residents as today?

If we want the safe food chain to develop sustainably, consumers are still decisive factors. Therefore, the first thing the authorities should do is to promote communication and media to help consumers recognize between safe products and unsafe products at sales points. When consumers have enough skills to distinguish, they will be likely to make the right decision in choosing safe agricultural products.

For certified facilities in the field of manufacturing and supply of safe food, the functional authorities should strengthen inspections and supervision to ensure the truthfulness and strictness as well as build the trust with consumers and producers, to ensure fairness and transparency in the market.

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In addition to the inspections and supervision, the authorities should strictly handle violated cases related to unclean and unsafe food. In this context, I also suggest that policy-makers and legislators need to change their look for organizations and individuals producing and consuming contaminated and unclean food to have stronger solutions instead of administrative sanctions as today.

Thank you!