vegetable – Fresh Studio

Smallholders link to supply supermarkets

Posted on April 16, 2015November 9, 2022 by Ngô Khoa

A food safety crisis in Vietnam has opened the door to smallholder vegetable producers in the north-western highlands to pioneer an agribusiness model that is now supplying Hanoi with certified safe produce.

New vegetable supply chains developed in an ACIAR agribusiness project have linked Vietnamese farmers in poor highland villages in Moc Chau district with the modern retailers that are changing the way people shop in Hanoi. The public private partnership (PPP) involved the Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute, the Research Institute of Fruits and Vegetables, Hanoi University of Agriculture, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and Fresh Studio.

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Source: ACIAR – Partners magazine

Publication date: April 2015

Round Table ‘Developing Myanmar’s Vegetable Sector’

Posted on November 20, 2014November 9, 2022 by Ngô Khoa

Fresh Studio’s Director Marketing and Business development, Sigrid Wertheim-Heck, delivered a keynote presentation during the round table meeting ‘Developing Myanmar’s Vegetable Sector’ in Nay Pyi Taw.

On the 20th of November the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and the Netherlands Embassy in cooperation with Mercy Corps and East-West Seed hosted a Round Table Meeting focusing on the development of Myanmar’s Vegetable Sector in Nay Pyi Taw. The objective of the meeting was for stakeholders from government, private sector and development agencies to jointly reach consensus on the main steps that will be necessary for realizing the growth potential in Myanmar’s vegetable sector and begin planning for their implementation.

Fresh Studio’s Director Marketing and Business Development was invited to give a keynote presentation on Fresh Studio’s experiences in vegetable sector development in Vietnam.

Download the presentation:
‘Developing Myanmar’s Vegetable Sector’
Sigrid Wertheim-Heck, 20 Nov 2014
G2G Round table, Nay Pyi Taw Download

“It was an honor to present Fresh Studio experiences from Vietnam at the round table and inspiring to join the open and constructive discussions with counter parts in Myanmar. The attendance was robust atmosphere very constructive. Conclusion: a lot needs to be done, but first steps are being made in collective addressing the diversity in topics. The organizers will share the outcomes and recommendations for concrete action shortly.”

*Participants of the round table Meeting focusing on the development of Myanmar’s Vegetable Sector*

Vietnamese vegetable growth in modern greenhouses

Posted on July 17, 2014November 9, 2022 by Ngô Khoa

Vietnams’ population consists of approximately 90 million people. Vegetables play an important role in their daily meals. Within the pilot-project Horti Dalat, Dutch companies are supporting the Vietnamese horti-sector with the development of modern greenhouses vegetables production.

The rapid growth of the Vietnamese population and pace and scope of retail development results in a high demand for quality products, food safety, stable supply and sustainable vegetable production.

In the Dutch article ‘Vietnamese groente gaat de kas in’, Flip van Koesveld and Huub Schepers of Applied Plant Reseach (Wageningen UR) discuss the vegetable production transition in Vietnam; from ‘outside’ to ‘inside’. For Vietnamese farmers it is smart choice to produce vegetable in greenhouses: “Shortly there are 3 reasons: less plant diseases, a reduced amount of fertilizer and higher yields. Greenhouses for vegetable production keep many issues ‘outside’ while the yield is increasing”.

Fresh Studio is, according to Van Koesveld, an important player in the chain. The company supports and creates breakthrough innovative interventions in the Asian food sector. “Fresh Studio plays a central role. We can give input how Vietnamese farmers should produce vegetables, but we do not speak their languages. For this, you need a strong local partner. One who can train farmers and who continues the project after finishing in 2016.”

+ Read the complete article (Language: Dutch)

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Source: Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland

Publication date: July 2014

Improved market engagement for off-seasonal vegetable producers in North-West Vietnam

Posted on April 15, 2014November 9, 2022 by Luyen

Moc Chau and Son La government agronomists and extension officers will start to join Fresh Studio, Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NOMAFSI) and Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA) in the monitoring of farmers.

The farmers participate in the project: Improved market engagement for counter-seasonal vegetable producers in North West Vietnam. The engagement of Moc Chau and Son La governments is part of 1) handing over project activities to local stakeholders and 2) developing a certification system to produce and market Moc Chau vegetables under a trademark.

One of the objectives of the project is to evaluate the economic potential and improve the current supply chain model. This model is introduced in 3 villages in Moc Chau, Vietnam: An Thai, Ta Niet and Tu Nhien. In order to achieve this objective, farmers are participating in trainings executed by experts from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), NOMAFSI, HUA, Fruits and Vegetables Research Institute (FAVRI) and Fresh Studio. After 3 years, the supply chain model is working and getting stronger. Farmer groups are now supplying and coordinating directly to the retailers.

^ Reviewers together with project team inspect the fields of potential farmers

Initially, the project focused mainly on supplying Hanoi market with safe vegetables during the off-season (March-November). However, due to a constant volume and improving quality of Moc Chau vegetables, Hanoi retailers are more than willing to purchase vegetable from Moc Chau whole year round.

The project will continue to train and support the local stakeholders until 2015. For the coming months, strengthening the farmer groups in the 3 core project villages is top priority together with registration and implementing control and monitoring of the trademark and logo. By the end of the project, farmers together with the local government of Moc Chau and Son La province will take over and continue the activities in supplying certified Moc Chau vegetables under one certification trademark.

Reputation risk for clean and safe vegetables from Dalat

Posted on April 10, 2014November 9, 2022 by Luyen

Dalat is an important region of high-quality vegetable production in Vietnam. The adaption of standardized methods and modern cultivation technologies by farmers in Dalat has led to the successful growth of clean and safe tomatoes, potatoes, and cabbages which are larger than the average size of vegetables. But is bigger always better?

Despite the successful growth of clean and safe vegetables, farmers and traders in Dalat encounter difficulties finding buyers for their production. Most Vietnamese consumers associate unusual large fruit and vegetables with products from China. Consumers are unable to distinguish high-quality vegetables from Dalat over Chinese vegetables, which lead to falsely accusing distributors of selling Chinese products.

This misconception of Vietnamese consumers is caused by the fact that a wide variety of Chinese produce (e.g. carrots, cabbage, potato, garlic, and ginger) is available in larger sizes compared to local produce and their quality and safety is often front-page news.

The suspiciousness of consumers creates a paradox for fresh food production form Dalat; the oversized products, produced by means of standardized methods and modern technology, are sold at lower prices than those of lower quality.

Promotion
According to experts, the solution to this paradox is that Dalat high-tech produce growers should join forces to introduce these ‘giant’ products to consumers countrywide with the results that consumers will no longer mistake them for Chinese fruits and vegetables. “Growers should frequently launch programs to promote their products. It’s a pity that large Dutch-beef tomatoes are mistaken for Chinese tomatoes,” advised our representative of Fresh Studio in Dalat, adding that this proves that the promoting channels for Dalat produce should further improve.

This advice was supported by agriculture expert Le Huu Phan, who urged Dalat farmers to take immediate action to educate consumers across the country about their high-quality produce. “This should be done soon to prevent the reputation of Dalat vegetables from being damaged”.

Read the original article at: www.tuoitrenews.vn

Creation of a value chain for vegetables in North Vietnam

Posted on December 20, 2013November 7, 2022 by Ngô Khoa

Background

Temperatures and humidity are too high in the Red River Delta plains to produce the required range of vegetables and there is limited supply of vegetables from Dalat from April to September. Therefore markets in North Vietnam are flooded with vegetables imported from China. This concerns consumers and government regulators due to questionable food safety standards.

The rapid urbanization in Northern Vietnam combined with consumer demand for high quality and guaranteed safe vegetables, the long distance from Dalat to Hanoi (1,400 km) and the influx of Chinese vegetable imports, provides an opportunity to develop regional supply of safe vegetables for urban markets in North Vietnam.

Approach

Since 2010 Fresh Studio has been cooperating with METRO Cash & Carry Vietnam in North Vietnam to:

Provide small holder vegetable farmers with a direct linkage to modern trade
Diminish the negative environmental impacts of the current unsustainable horticulture production systems
Offer urban consumers guaranteed high quality and safe vegetables for a wide range of vegetables in large volumes

To develop year round supply of guaranteed high quality and safe vegetables from North Vietnam, Fresh Studio clustered small holder vegetable farmers in the lowlands of the Red River Delta, as well as the poorer and more remote farmers located in the mountains in the North. Using the climatic advantage of the cooler mountains in North Vietnam, a regional solution has been developed to supplement the vegetable supply from the Red River Delta during the summer period. This resulted in the possibility for METRO and other retailers to source high quality and safe vegetables year round from North Vietnam.

Outcome

At the end of the project, 6 farmer groups were developed, representing a total of 113 farmers across 3 sourcing areas: Dong Anh, Hai Duong and Moc Chau. All farmer groups achieved government food safety certification and were trained in the METRO Requirement standard. In addition to government certification 46 farmers received METRO Requirement certification. Out of the 36 vegetables selected as project assortment, 26 are now METRO Requirement certified.

Supply chain before intervention

Limited cooperation within the chain
Limited knowledge exchange between actors

Value chain after intervention

Good cooperation within the chain
Extensive knowledge exchange between actors

Recent developments in this project:

Vegetable farmer extension program in Moc Chau yields encouraging results

Posted on December 9, 2013November 7, 2022 by Luyen

MOC CHAU – Bringing vegetable farmers together, with different techniques and farming styles, and comparing their performance among each other, will lead to improved yields, higher quality produce and increasing farmers’ income.

The weekend before the conference ‘Supplying the market of tomorrow’, a delegation from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) participated in a farmers’ exchange meeting with three farmer groups in Moc Chau organized by the Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NOMAFSI), Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA), Fruits and Vegetables Research Institute (FAVRI) and Fresh Studio.

With over 40 farmers present, the meeting focused on the three largest vegetable products supplied to Hanoi by the farmer groups during the past season: French bean, tomato, and white cabbage.

Presentation:

	Farmer’s exchange meeting
	Location: Tu Nhien, Moc Chau
	Date: 18 November 2013
	Download: English Tiếng Việt

Opening up
Ms. Vu Thi Phuong Thanh (agronomist, Fresh Studio) started the meeting by giving a general introduction comparing the production area, assortment and volumes of vegetables sold under the project in 2012 and 2013. Ms. Thanh shared that “the total production area increased more than four times: from four hectares in 2012 to eighteen hectares in 2013. Moreover, the total volume sold to Hanoi retailers by the three farmer groups reached 155 tons from May to October this year.”

Comparing farm performance
After the introduction presentation, the farmers were split into smaller discussion groups according to crops (French bean, tomato and white cabbage) they produced,

In each group, every farmer’s performance was discussed and compared within the group. This analysis was made possible through farmer record keeping which were encoded in the MonQi database – a software Fresh Studio uses in its extension program to analyze farmer performance and benchmark farmer’s performance with each other.

The comparisons were used to fuel the discussion among farmers to answer questions like “What caused the differences in yield?” and “Why one farmer earned more than the other?” Farmers were very eager to share with fellow farmers how they grow their crops and how they think other farmers can improve their crop performance.

Farmers have a lot of experience, but hardly compare actual figures of their own farm with other farmers. Putting them in a group to show them the performance of their own farm and how their farm compares to other farmers in the same group is very useful to learn from each other.

After the group sessions, FAVRI shared with the farmers the results of the post-harvest trials that they conducted. Transportation of vegetables by plastic crates proved to give the best results both on product quality and temperature management as compared to nylon bags and carton boxes.

The success of the 2013 season is yet another milestone in developing the vegetable sector of Moc Chau. The Moc Chau district is only a four-hour drive away from Hanoi making it an excellent regional alternative to supply temperate vegetables during the summer months of May to September.

Also interesting to read:

Setting up a vegetable and fish sourcing system

Posted on August 8, 2013November 7, 2022 by Ngô Khoa

Since 2007, Fresh Studio has been contracted by a multinational wholesaler to manage and develop their vegetable and fish sourcing systems, with the aim to improve product quality and safety standards.

The assignment began with the establishment of a sourcing system in Dalat (Central Highlands of Vietnam). A certified sourcing system with over 150 contracted farmers was drawn up, and a new state-of-the-art HACCP certified pack house was designed and constructed. This system has been running very successfully for over 5 years, and the volumes produced, along with the number of farmers involved, are growing steadily. Every day the Fresh Studio sourcing team is handling over 150 different SKUs, preparing them for nationwide distribution to our client stores.

Inspired by the success of this project, our client asked us to develop a similar system for vegetables in the North of Vietnam, and for fish in Southern Vietnam.

Our aims are:

To develop year round supply of guaranteed high quality and safe vegetables from North Vietnam, Fresh Studio is working with 100 smallholder vegetable farmers in the lowlands of the Red River Delta, as well as the poorer and more remote farmers located in the mountains in the North. Using the climatic advantage of the cooler mountains in North Vietnam, a regional solution is being developed to supplement the vegetable supply from the Red River Delta during the summer period, thus creating the possibility for year round supply of guaranteed high quality and safe vegetables from North Vietnam.

Almost all investments and professionalization in the aquaculture sector of Vietnam have just focussed on pangasius and shrimp, which are the main seafood export products. But as our client targets the 88 million domestic consumers, nobody till date had developed a professional fresh fish sourcing and processing system targeting the 80 fish species which the Vietnamese love to eat. Within two years time Fresh Studio assisted its client to setup and manage the first fresh fish processing facility and developed a sourcing system which now every day sources fresh fish from over 100 well trained and certified fish farmers and 20 preferred marine and fresh water certified fish collectors.

Vegetable market locations in Hanoi

Posted on June 27, 2013November 7, 2022 by Luyen

Mid 2012 Fresh Studio undertook a safe vegetable retail census covering 10 urban districts of Hanoi.

We combed every street in these 10 districts in search for outlets claiming to sell safe vegetables. The census included all supermarkets, all convenience stores and all vegetable shops, kiosks and stalls claiming to sell safe vegetables; explicitly communicating rau an toàn (safe vegetables), rau sạch (clean vegetables) and/or rau hữu cơ (organic vegetables).

Our research learned that the total volume of safe vegetables sold through the census outlets (based on collected data of average daily volume sales) represents less than 4% of the total amount of vegetables consumed in Hanoi (based on a per capita consumption of 290gr/day).

Further our research learned that supermarket sales account for around 63% of total safe vegetables sold by the census outlets combined.

Relative share in total safe vegetable sales (%):

The main purpose of the research is to provide a rough overview of the safe vegetable retail distribution in urban Hanoi. The enclosed map provides a snapshot of the safe vegetable retail distribution structure of April 2012. Since then across all categories some outlets have closed down while others have opened. We are currently updating the data and welcome information on newly opened channels and will make an updated census overview available through our website early 2014.

If you want to know more information about this census or if you are looking for more information on the category definitions and about the Hanoi market please contact us.

New vegetable hub under development for Vietnam

Posted on May 6, 2012November 7, 2022 by Luyen

MOC CHAU – Fresh Studio and Applied Plant Research of Wageningen UR are working on vegetable trials in the Moc Chau area since 2007, and recently Fresh Studio joined a team of local and international experts from a range of aid and development organizations to improve the market engagement for counter-seasonal vegetable producers in Moc Chau..

Urban consumers in North Vietnam encounter problems buying guaranteed safe vegetables especially during the hot and humid summer period in North Vietnam which starts in April and lasts until September. Because temperatures and humidity are too high in the Red River Delta plains to produce the required range of vegetables and there is limited supply of vegetables from Dalat from April to September, markets in North Vietnam are flooded with vegetables imported from China. This concerns consumers and government regulators due to questionable food safety standards.

The climatic advantage of the cooler mountains of Moc Chau, Son La province, an area 4-5 hours from Hanoi is used to develop a regional solution to supplement the vegetable supply from the Red River Delta during the summer period.

Tag: vegetable