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Tag: Thực phẩm

Reaching lower income consumers with safe and healthy food – Mission possible?

Posted on by Luyen

Nearly 50% of Hanoi’s urban population lives on 4 USD or less a day. This group represents a food value of circa 5 million USD/day. Despite their demand for safe and nutritious food, this economy of scale is not yet targeted with fresh food quality improvements.

Food that carries formal food safety certification by government authorities is mainly traded at registered and certified food safety retail outlets, targeting middle and upper income classes. Even though Hanoi’s lower income residents are explicitly demanding for safe and healthy foods, they are generally excluded from these channels.


The exclusion of lower income consumers from more controlled formal food provision systems urges innovative approaches.

The research was funded by BoP Innovation Center and conducted by Fresh Studio in 2013.

Get access by downloading the report below and discover whether it is a “Mission (im)possible” to reach lower income consumers in urban Hanoi with certified safe and healthy food.

+ Reaching lower income groups with safe and healthy food – mission possible? (3 MB)

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Source: Fresh Studio

Language: English

Publication date: June 2014

Food safety in everyday life: Shopping for vegetables in a rural city in Vietnam

Posted on by Luyen

Sigrid Wertheim-Heck, Gert Spaargaren and Sietze Vellema conducted a research with the aim to investigate how Vietnamese citizens in their everyday lives are confronting the health risks and other side effects related to the consumption of fresh vegetables.

Concerns about food safety influence the way in which Vietnamese consumers confront the question of where, how and from whom they buy their fresh vegetables. In this paper we analyze in what manner and to what extent existing shopping practices inhibit the adoption of modern retail based food safety strategies. Using a social practices theory based approach; we analyze in detail the sales practices of sellers and the purchasing practices of consumers in a Vietnamese provincial city.

This study reveals how both sellers and buyers in wet-markets, Asian style fresh food markets, apply different sets of skills and knowledge, based on locality, personal contacts and private judgment, to match supply and demand in the context of food safety threats. Within the everyday practice of shopping for vegetables, trust is shown to be continuously reproduced along pre-given lines.

Consumers do not easily look outside or move beyond their existing routines even when food safety concerns would urge them to do so. From these findings we conclude that in situations where wet-markets serve as the dominant channel for distributing and purchasing fresh food, the efficacy of government and retail induced food safety strategies depends on their articulation within existing food purchasing routines of Vietnamese consumers.

Download the complete publication here

Constrained consumer practices and food safety concerns in Hanoi

Posted on by Luyen

What explains the persistence of vegetable shopping at street markets even while they do not offer formal food safety guarantees in Hanoi? Sigrid Wertheim-Heck, Sietze Vellema and Gert Spaargaren, with support of Fresh Studio Team, conducted a practice-based research in order to understand the motivation and constraints of consumers relating to their daily vegetable purchase practices.

Food safety is a widely recognized concern in Vietnam. Public officials, companies and consumers find different ways to address risks of pesticide residues and bacterial contamination related to the use of fresh vegetables in daily diets. The response of the government to these food safety risks includes the modernization and regulation of the food retail system. However, reforms that aim to offer a controlled and predictable provision of fresh vegetables through supermarkets seem to contrast with the daily consumer practices in a dynamic city as Hanoi; over 95% of vegetables is still being purchased at long-established open-air markets, importantly the informal and unhygienic street markets. Using a practices theory approach, this paper aims to explain this persistence of street-market shopping for vegetables.

Detailed accounts of consumer practices, case studies at different retailing sites and daily logbooks of consumers demonstrate that the way consumers cope with food safety risks is largely shaped by the temporal and spatial constraints of their daily shopping practices.

We identified how vegetable shopping is either enjoyed as social interaction within the local community or is regarded a time-consuming activity that conflicts with other activities in everyday life. Our findings indicate how these constraints constitute a reinforcing mechanism for the persistence of uncontrolled and unhygienic street markets.

To make policy responses to food safety risks both more realistic and effective, it is essential to connect to and accommodate the daily realities of consumers managing time and space in a modernizing city rather than to impose an ideal, typical market exclusively driven by the wish to control food safety risks.

Download the complete publication here

Food Safety – Mission Possible?

Posted on by Luyen

HCMC – Fresh Studio gave a presentation during a joint-event of the EuroCham Food Agri Aqua Business Sector Committee (FAASC) and the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

The recently established Food, Agri, Aqua Business sector committee (FAASC) under the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) in Vietnam, organized in close cooperation with the Royal Netherlands Embassy a successful event titled: Food safety – Mission Possible?


Over 150 participants from both the private and public sector discussed how to improve food safety across the agriculture chain.


Public sector
The vision of the FAASC on this theme was presented by the director of De Heus, Mr. Gabor Fluit. In his presentation he emphasized the urgent need to develop a central agency in Vietnam for food safety control. Currently, food safety issues are managed by different agencies which belong to various ministries. This current structure makes it difficult to respond efficiently and quickly in times of emergency (e.g. food poisoning). Also, it limits export possibilities for local producers, since importing countries require high standards in this area. Mr. Ron Dwinger, a representative of the Dutch Food Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), shared in his presentation the history and experiences in the Netherlands of developing a centralized food safety authority. This was a process of more than 30 years, in which different organizations were merged.


The presentation invoked a lot of questions and discussion from the various representatives from Vietnamese ministries and food safety control authorities.


Private sector
Presentations from the private sector showed what could be done in the field to improve food safety in agro-chains.


Siebe van Wijk, Managing Director of Fresh Studio, shared various experiences of Dutch public private sector funded projects, in which through cooperation between Vietnam and the Netherlands food safety was improved considerably.


In the final presentation, Mrs. Ina Enting of the Holland Pig Association presented a new initiative in which both the Vietnamese and Dutch public and private sector will cooperate closely to improve food safety in the Vietnamese pork sector.

For more information about FAASC: Fresh Studio Co-founder of FAASC or Eurochamvn/FAASC

Source: Eurocham Vietnam & Holland in VietnamAlso interesting to read:

Fresh Studio presents developments in food safety standards and the role of supermarkets in Asia

Posted on by Luyen

HCMC – The 9th and 10th of October 2013, the International Finance Cooperation (IFC) will organize a business roundtable for firms in the agribusiness sector. Fresh Studio is invited to speak.

The business roundtable focusses on opportunities for firms who are interested to build sustainable supply chains with smallholder farmers.


During the roundtable agribusinesses firms, financial institutions, training practitioners, donors and other experts will share and discuss their experiences with innovative business models which promote sustainability and food security.

Fresh Studio’s managing director, Siebe van Wijk will give a presentation about the latest developments in food standards in Vietnam and the role of supermarkets.

Want to know more about the Siebe van Wijk’s presentation follow us on LinkedIn and website.Also interesting to read:

Fresh Studio co-founder of the Food Agri & Aqua Business Sector Committee (FAASC)

Posted on by Luyen

The agriculture sector plays a crucial role for the Vietnamese economy. To improve this sector, four leading agriculture companies took the initiative to form the Food, Agri and Aquaculture Business Sector committee (FAASC). The founding companies include de Heus, FrieslandCampina, Control Union and Fresh Studio.

The FAASC is formed under the direction of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham). Since its start, the FAASC has grown to twelve members, among which Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam, Bureau Veritas, Bayer, Nestlé, Invivo labs, La Vie, Virbac and Yara. FAASC believes that the Food, Agri and Aqua Business sector can become stronger, more competitive and more high-tech without detrimental effects for the population, country and the environment. Contrary, in the long-term the sector could become more sustainable without necessarily increasing the costs.


The objective of FAASC is to improve the competitiveness of the Food, Agri and Aqua Business sector, by sharing knowledge and experience with the public sector and by sharing of best practices among the FAASC members in Vietnam. In order to reach this objective, FAASC:

  • Focuses on improvement of food safety for human-beings and animals trough a value chain approach;
  • Creates a level playing field for small, large, local and international companies regardless of legal entity, size and nationality, based on a common interest,
  • Creates a sustainable Food, Agri and Aqua Business sector in Vietnam for the long term and improves the sustainability of the sector.

FAASC event November 2013: Food Safety – Mission Possible?

For more information about FAASC, visit: Eurochamvn/FAASCAlso interesting to read:

Knapen: Growth market for sustainable food in Vietnam

Posted on by Luyen

HANOI – ‘The demand for sustainable and safe food is growing in Vietnam, and the spending power for such products has increased.

This creates opportunities for Vietnamese farmers and Dutch entrepreneurs, who are internationally renowned for their expertise in sustainable agricultural methods,’ development cooperation minister Ben Knapen said on Tuesday after visiting a sustainable vegetable producer near the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

The minister is paying a working visit to Vietnam to witness the transition from aid to trade and investment. Vietnam has an economic growth rate of around 5%, and is one of the three developing countries where the Netherlands is deploying knowledge and experience accumulated through development cooperation for economic diplomacy.

The minister visited a sustainable vegetable farm, established with the help of development funding as well as with private financial support by specialists from the Dutch food chain company Fresh Studio. He spoke with women who have been trained to cultivate 18 types of high-quality vegetables without excessive use of pesticides. The women produce vegetables such as amaranth, choy sum, cucumber, aubergine, kang kong, kohlrabi and spinach on their smallholdings, destined for the Vietnamese market.

The successful vegetable chain is now financially independent, and each day supplies large volumes of safe, fresh vegetables to the population of Hanoi. Fresh Studio currently has plans, together with PepsiCo and (on the Dutch side) HZPC, Wageningen UR and Agrico, to devise a new sustainable food chain for potatoes. Mr Knapen has asked the company to elaborate on these plans, and to send them to NL Agency for a final assessment.

Mr Knapen also visited the deputy foreign minister, Bui Thanh Son. Topics of discussion included bilateral ties, cooperation and dialogue between the European Union and Vietnam in various fields, including human rights. The World Bank’s annual meeting was also discussed. On Wednesday Mr Knapen will travel to Ho Chi Minh City to learn about flooding and water management problems there.

Source: www.rijksoverheid.nlAlso interesting to read:

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