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

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:

Victor Benbakir: Discovering Vietnamese aquaculture sector

CAN THO – For this study I had to find a 6 months internship related to this main subjects and Fresh Studio has offered me the possibility to go in Vietnam to make this course.

I am Victor Benbakir a French student of 21 years old; I studied Bsc in sustainable aquaculture and quality management in the University of Savoie.


During my internship I was based in the fish department office in Can tho (one of the largest cities of the Mekong Delta). There the staff offered me the best welcome I ever had for all the internships I had made in my life and I was considered as a fully-fledged employee of the company.


The office in Can Tho was originally created for a continuous project for Metro (German supply company) which wanted to secures the fish chain supply for all the Metro stores in Vietnam. For this project Fresh Studio created a network of farmers, a standard named “Metro Requirement” and a fish transformation factory in Can Tho.


During the first month I had to get use to a totally different way to produce fish and learn the biology of the cultured local species. It was really a chock for me because I was use to work in modern farming system and it was kind a back in the time to see how the farmers grow the local species. I also didn’t know so much about these species (Snakehead fish, Knife fish, Climbing perch…) so it’s of course a plus for me now.


A part of my work was to go on the farms with the aquaculture consultants to check if the farmers respected the standard, give productions advices and also make some trainings for both farmers and consultants about fish farm management.


Then a new project came over in association with the De Heus Company (Dutch animal feed company), the creation of the first R&D services farm, and I have the opportunity to participate to it. I followed the creation of the farm and its design. I made some research with the consultants about all the devices needed for a R&D farm and used the data from the productions farms to find out what type of interesting research could be done on this farm.


Thanks to this internship I had a very concrete discovery of the aquaculture sector in the South Vietnam; it was also my first professional experience in a large company so it allows me to discover it. Furthermore I had the opportunity to work on a big project which is difficult when you’re only an intern in France or in Europe…


Moreover I visited many amazing places, meet a lot of very welcoming people and discovered the real Vietnam which is I think difficult to do when you only go for tourism here. I want to thanks Fresh Studio again for this great opportunity, I will remember this internship for a long time.

Also interesting to read:

Vietnam’s gherkin sector investigated

HANOI – For one of our clients, a multi-disciplinary team (an agronomist, post-harvest and business development specialists) from the Fresh Studio Hanoi office is currently undertaking a sector study of the booming Vietnamese gherkin sector.

This young sector, which first started its exports in 2000, is proving to be internationally very competitive, and is growing rapidly. Fresh Studio aims to play a leading role in professionalizing this sector, which provides higher incomes for smallholders, with often less than 0.5 hectares of land, and requires large number of workers in gherkin processing factories.Also interesting to read:

Alex van Andel: Market research on seed sector of Dalat, Vietnam

DALAT – As part of the MSc Management, Economics and Consumer Studies at Wageningen University, I conducted an internship at Fresh Studio in Dalat, Vietnam. 

My assignment for this internship was to conduct a market research on the seed sector of Lam Dong Province, the province where Dalat is located.

Internship
The area of Dalat is well known for growing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, thanks to the altitude and climate. As part of a project to introduce new vegetable varieties in Vietnam for one of Fresh Studio’s clients, I conducted a survey on the nursery sector in Lam Dong. Nurseries are greenhouses where seeds are grown into seedlings after which the seedlings are sold and transported to farmers.


My internship was a nice combination of field and office work. I conducted a survey and follow-up in-depth interviews with the owners of the nurseries and combined the insights into a final report on the seed/nursery sector of Lam Dong Province and the potential for seed sales per vegetable type for one of Fresh Studio’s clients.

About Fresh Studio
Fresh Studio is a young and developing company with passionate, professional, and committed people. I had the opportunity to not only learn from my own project, but also from the projects on which my colleagues were working. Activities ranged from the sourcing of vegetables for a large modern retailer, R&D for agriculture input providers and marketing of avocados in the traditional and modern retail outlets of Vietnam. The open and positive working atmosphere at Fresh Studio made me feel ‘at home’ very quickly.

Choice for Fresh Studio
Multinational companies always appealed to me and so it was an atypical choice for me to undertake my internship within a relatively small company as Fresh Studio. However, I have not regretted this choice, as Fresh Studio is a professional and well-organized company which provided a great learning environment.

Preparation
Before my departure to Vietnam, I arranged the visa, flight ticket and required vaccinations. Next to providing work-related facilities, Fresh Studio arranged my accommodation and covered my expenses.

Looking back
My four month period in Vietnam enriched my life. I experienced the Fresh Studio way of doing business, worked in a professional organization, in a sector which appeals to me very much, in a country that is not only beautiful, but is also economically booming.

Moreover, being part of the Fresh Studio ‘family’, experiencing the Vietnamese culture and traveling in Vietnam and Cambodia after my internship made it an experience I will never forget.Also interesting to read:

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