Vietnam: Hanoi tries to control vegetable quality

Leaders of Hanoi’s six adjacent provinces, which have been providing vegetables to the city, have acknowledged that they have been unable to control the vegetables grown in the provinces.

Deputy Director General of the Hanoi Department for Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Duy Tam said that Hanoi can put out 150,000 tonnes of vegetables a year, 38% of which are ‘safe’ vegetables. However, the modest volume of vegetables is just enough to meet the demand of 40% of the capital’s residents. The other 60% of the demand must be met by supplies from its neighbouring provinces: Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Hai Duong, Hung Yen and Hai Phong.

The quality of the vegetables sold in Hanoi remains questionable. According to Mr Tam, a test on vegetable samples in 2003-2004 showed that 10% of the samples contained fertiliser residues, 4% of which had residues exceeding the allowed level.

Leaders from Ha Tay Province, the biggest vegetable supplier to Hanoi, have also acknowledged that there are only 585 ha of ‘safe’ vegetables out of the existing 20,000 ha available in the province, which accounts for 17% of the total vegetable amount that the province sells on the market.

Meanwhile, the ‘safe’ vegetables grown in Bac Ninh Province cannot penetrate Hanoi’s market, because no independent institution can certify the quality of the Bac Ninh-grown vegetables. Leaders of Vinh Phuc Province said that they cannot control the quality of locally farmed vegetables. It is estimated that around 155,000 tonnes of vegetables are sold in Hanoi every day.

Local authorities have been encouraging farmers to grow ‘safe’ vegetables. However, the programmes on growing clean vegetables have not draw much attention from farmers. The total area of ‘safe’ vegetables in six provinces is 16,000 ha only, which can provide 288,000 tonnes of products, just fulfilling 8.4% of the targeted plan in plantation area and 7.4% in quality.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has requested local authorities to instruct farmers to produce vegetables in accordance with the set requirements. Mr Phat has also emphasised the need of setting up an independent institution which can certify the quality of the vegetables provided to Hanoi.

Source