Dong Nai province has a lot of advantages in agricultural production. However, the number of facilities producing clean food that have been certified is pretty small. Specifically, according to statistics of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, there are more than 2,400 breeding farms in the province, but only 79 farms are certified by VietGAP, ensuring origin traceability throughout the breeding process. Similarly, in the field of cultivation, among 556 production cooperatives, there are only 16 ones are certified to meet VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards. In the fishery sector, the number of facilities certified to meet VietGAP standards is not any higher with only 36 out of 1,000 aquaculture producers are certified.
Consumers are choosing vegetables at Co.op Mart supermarket
The fact that there are too few standardized production facilities also limits the supply of clean foods to the market. "We have very few choices, mostly just ordering from familiar suppliers at traditional markets. As small traders collect agricultural products from farms and provide to the company, the quality of products is only judged by appearance, and the residues of plant protection substances are unable to be determined, "said Tran Thi Yen Oanh, Director of Nguon Song Xanh Co., Ltd., a unit specializing in providing industrial catering service in Nhon Trach industrial zones.
Sharing the same difficulty, the representative from Dong Tien One-member Liability, specialized in providing industrial catering service, located in Tan Mai ward, Bien Hoa city, said that, currently the sources of vegetables, tubers and fruits come from Tan Bien wholesale market. However, since the sources of the goods here are collected by the small traders from farms and provided back to the company, it is difficult to determine the quality of these products. "Small traders judge the quality by the appearance of the products. Vegetables and fruits that look fresh and delicious will be selected, but the index of pesticide residue is unknown".
* Link for origin traceability
In fact, contradiction arises when it is not easy for consumers to choose clean food items due to the small supply, and many businesses find it difficult to find ... buyers. This "gap" leads to the situation where consumers have to find reliable supply of clean food while businesses also have to find buyers.
The cause of this situation is that the link chain of production and consumption of clean food hasn’t been formed. This failure not only makes it difficult to consume farm products, but also to increase the value of these commodities, reducing the competitiveness of the product. The reason is that businesses supplying clean food must seek the source of consumption in other provinces when they fail to so locally, which increases the cost of transport as well as marketing. "Our desire is that the authorities provide the opportunities where sellers and buyers can meet each other, to know each other's needs to form supply chains," said Ms. Pham Thi Ngoc Ha, CEO of San Ha Company whose slaughterhouse is located in TX. Long Khanh with the capacity of about 10,000 livestock and poultry per day.
According to Mr. Phan Minh Bau, linking supply and demand for agricultural products, constructing and linking agricultural and fishery consumption chains of this party will be the materials for the other party in order to reduce costs as well as for businesses to operate more effectively, avoiding waste due to many intermediate stages. In particular, the formation of the chain will ensure the traceability of the product to control quality. "When the origin of the product is traceable, it's certain to assume that the product is safe or not. We do not have to store the samples like what we are doing now to trace the cause and the source of products when consumers have problems like food poison," he analyzed.
Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Vo Van Chanh said that linking supply and demand for agricultural products is very important. Especially in the context of the first few months of 2017, Dong Nai had to set up two steering committees to deal with redundant output of bananas and pigs. Therefore, this is one of the necessary measures to be taken to build a sustainable agriculture.
The leader of the provincial People's Committee said that in order to develop sustainable agriculture, it is necessary to link the parties from the production, processing and consumption to reduce the costs arising from intermediate stages, increase competitiveness and especially grasp the development trend of the market to focus on investment and production. "Sustainability in agriculture combined with traceability, food hygiene and safety is always the top priority and the backbone for agricultural development as well as the supply chain of local agricultural products, "Vice Chairman Vo Van Chanh emphasized.
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