Hygienic vegetable market – why high demand but hard to sell

Current conditions
Food safety is always the hottest and most pressing issue today because it directly affects the
health of each of us, especially here we are talking about clean vegetables, hygienic vegetables.
Hygienic vegetables are fresh vegetable products (including all quality vegetables, stems, leaves,
fruits of the right quality, such as the nature and content of toxic chemicals and the degree of
pollution of organisms harmful under permitted standards, ensuring safety for consumers and the
environment.

Currently, dirty food is rampant in the market. These foods do not guarantee quality, unknown
origin, making it difficult for consumers to choose products that ensure safety. Since then, the
demand for clean food in general and clean vegetables (in particular of consumers) is huge. On
the farmers' side, the production of clean products, meeting the needs of consumers, having
stable output and achieving higher value is also the goal that they always aim at.

However, a paradox is happening: while consumers are thirsty for clean vegetables, in many
clean vegetable stalls, vegetable growers always face difficulties in production, sometimes even
dumping. . . supply and demand between consumers and farmers also exist many barriers, among
them due to existing prejudices between consumers and products created by farmers and vice
versa.

For example, the project of growing hygienic vegetables at Phuong Vien Agricultural
Cooperative, Song Phuong commune, Hoai Duc district. Although the project has been in
operation for 7 years, until now, there has not been any unit standing out to provide stable
products for farmers, so they almost have to bring all vegetables to retail. The cost they have to
spend on growing clean vegetables is 30% higher than growing vegetables, but the price of
finished products is not higher.

In fact, not 100% of hygienic vegetables produce units that stand out for distribution, but a large
number of hygienic vegetables must be brought to retail market well and mixed with dirty
vegetables... Therefore, products that people consider to be hygienic vegetables in fact not only
fail to meet the demand for clean vegetables but are not really sure if they are really clean
vegetables. In addition, the spontaneous clean vegetable production areas also lose consumer
confidence in whether the vegetables they buy really meet the standard. At present, areas of
producing clean vegetables in provinces such as Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen, and Hai Duong
have not been planned and have not yet been inspected and monitored for production from
authority agencies.

Causes
From the producer
 Due to the use of pesticides and stimulants: demand for clean vegetables in Ha Noi, the
cabinet is getting bigger and bigger, but the market for this item is still too narrow.
According to vietnamnet newspaper, the amount of fresh vegetables now only supplies
14% of consumer demand. To meet the urgent needs of the market, manufacturers "must"
use growth stimulants to help plants grow fast, causing unpredictable consequences for
the user.
 Due to high-profit demand: producers always want to earn the highest profit, so they are
ready to market pesticides that are not harvested yet and use green drugs to deceive
people. consumption for higher prices.
A shred of factual evidence: Mr. Nguyen Quang Minh, Director of the Plant Protection
Department expressed concern about the results of analysis of residues of pesticides,
heavy metals and nitrates on some vegetables in three provinces of Hanoi and Ha Tay.
Vinh Phuc in 2005: 4/18 regular vegetable samples (vegetables, spinach) in Hanoi, 8/18
regular vegetable samples in Ha Tay and 11/18 regular vegetable samples in Vinh Phuc
have residues of plant protection drugs. Even hygienic vegetables in these areas can not
avoid the situation, if this is not said, who will know?
 Business ethics are reduced: to meet the needs of the market and the demand for the
profit that producers are losing "conscience", they are ready to sell the market of
vegetables that they know the high consequence will cause harm to users. The issue of
conscience and human morality is also an important cause.

From consumers
 Do not want to spend quality evaluation costs: psychologically shy, expensive consumers
have to accept to buy vegetables that they do not understand the quality, and do not give
up the fee for quality testing.
  The frequency of shopping: vegetables are the products that we have to use every day,
however, due to many reasons, the purchase of vegetables is not frequent: due to moving
house, due to lack of time, we have to buy a lot of vegetables put it in the fridge to use
gradually ... So the frequency of buying or not is also an important part of evaluating the
quality of vegetables.
 Lack of knowledge about health care: It is the customers who go to the market to buy
food to nurture the health of themselves and their families. However, most of them do not
really have a long-term sense of eating clean food to ensure hygiene, to maintain health
for them and their families in the future, so most people do not have proper awareness.
consider the importance of clean vegetables to health.

From the government

 Due to the policy, it was not implemented thoroughly. For example, the government
introduced a model of growing clean vegetables but did not guide specific people. So far,
people still have to dig every step to apply their own vegetable production technology
 Due to the responsibility of inspection officials: the bureaucratic phenomenon to test for
there is still a problem for the whole society. More worrisome even though vegetables are
not hygienic and hygiene is very different but when consumed, there is still ambiguity
except for some major vegetable brands consumed in collective kitchens and
supermarkets. Most of the hygienics vegetables are still sold as regular vegetables,
without labels, difficult to control quality even though provinces have registered bar
codes, have planned safe vegetable areas. It is this ambiguity that makes farmers and
consumers dislike hygienic vegetables.
 Due to the implementation process to be granted a difficult license, high costs: the cost
for chemical, physical and biological testing is very high (from 5 to 7 million VND /
farm) so this is a challenge It is difficult for producers who want to grow and distribute
clean vegetables.

The government does not have a mechanism to encourage the production and
consumption of hygienic vegetables for farmers and businesses that currently have very
few businesses involved in the consumption of hygienic vegetables, farmers often self-
produced. passive, spontaneous, unstable output between provinces has not been closely
 associated with production and from safety. This has led to a failure to replicate a safe
vegetable model.

Further analysis
There are many opinions that the investment costs of growing clean vegetables will be very high,
the other opinion is that the high prices of consumers are willing to pay high prices with
conditions that must be clean vegetables. This is not a high price issue but a problem that
consumers do not have enough information to believe that the vegetables are clean vegetables.
Even many families grow vegetables at home, time, effort, and expenses. The cost of a bunch of
vegetables grown at home is twice as high as buying in the market but consumers still choose to
grow at home, they choose to be smart consumers, willing to spend twice as much instead of
lower cost but not the quality guarantee.

However, it is difficult to distinguish clean vegetables or not, this is the nature of the
Asymmetric Information problem - In market transactions, one party with more information and
better about goods and services will be more beneficial than with the other party. In the market
economy, buyers and sellers must have information that corresponds to each other in terms of
quality, nature, and price. If I am a buyer and I have more information then I will benefit more.
People exploit more information to get more profit from the other side, so the market will be
unfair. When two-party information is not symmetrical, there is no imbalance of power in a
transaction. If the person with more information does not share it publicly with others to use it
for his own profit, that will undermine the lack of information that makes the transaction less
effective, even in some cases have a transaction.

People who buy hygienic vegetables do not know if the products purchased in the market are
clean or not. If we buy products that are expensive at twice the price but that food is not clean,
we have been exploited by sellers. The consumers should respond by:

 Ask for a certificate, origin (but we can not totally believe in that because it is easy to
make a fake one)
 Buy reputable stores with names

However, it is all based on the point of view that we have to really believe in that store but
cannot trust it completely.
Consumers do not know that vegetables bought in the market are clean vegetables or regular
vegetables, so when buying vegetables, it is determined that they are normal vegetables and
bargain that vegetable price as a normal vegetable price, if the price of vegetables that they buy
with the price Normally, the buyer is not damaged, the buyer pays the right value, in case it is
clean vegetables, the buyer buys interest. One of the most obvious ways of responding by
consumers is to always consider it the worst case and deal with, negotiate, bargain, negotiate
only on the basis that normal vegetables do not have enough information to believe it is clean
vegetables.

If it is the demand of consumers about clean vegetables, if they investigate them in a transparent
way, they always say that we have a strong need for clean vegetables but in fact, because clean
vegetables are scarce and ready to buy at prices twice as much as the normal price. But in fact,
housewives only buy at normal prices and they only accept to buy at normal prices.

In terms of the graph, it is shown by the appearance of the D1 line as a pseudo-demand line.
When the demand curve reduces market equilibrium, it will appear in point A and the number of
fresh vegetables bought and sold in the market D1. When the demand curve appears on the
market like the demand curve D1, the price consumers are willing to pay is lower than the price
of clean vegetables, the quantity is also less. If the vegetable seller is a true vegetable farmer,
they will face difficulties and suffer losses. The vegetable seller has to sell the price to D0 to be
profitable but the consumer only accepts the price of D1 so the seller of the clean vegetable will
suffer losses, being at risk in this. So, those who grow clean vegetables in a time that cannot
afford to maintain their capital will stop trading in fresh vegetables, the market returns to the
normal vegetable market. When such asymmetric information appears, the loss to society is the
triangle ABC - deadly loss, because the efficiency of society is Q0 according to MB = MEC but
the market only deals at Q0 so it is The ABC triangle is the loss, if the farmer provides enough
reliable information, people will buy more at Q0, the higher the price at P0 and the seller of the
vegetable will be profitable, at that time then society will have more triangle ABC. When an
asymmetric information case appears from the seller side, the reason is that the market everyone
needs but sells.

Government policy for hygienic vegetable market

 Recently, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has officially introduced the Government's
views and views on organic agricultural development in Vietnam. Accordingly, the
Government will not develop organic agriculture according to mass movements but must be
methodical and scientific in order to provide organic agricultural products to domestic people
and form an organic agricultural culture in Vietnam... Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc
affirmed that the government's view that organic agriculture is an important part of
agricultural production in Vietnam and Vietnam must succeed in the industrialization and
modernization process of the country to create new success.
 Taking evidence from the phenomenon of "2 beds, 2 pigs", the Prime Minister
emphasized that organic agriculture is highly educational, will contribute greatly to
building a better relationship, promoting human values. Human literature and organic
agriculture will also make a very important contribution to a green and sustainable
development economy. Those values are boundless, leaving the generations of
Vietnamese people behind a green, clean and vibrant nation.
 In that spirit, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development to develop a scheme on developing organic agriculture in the period of
2018 - 2025, vision of 2035, and submit to the Prime Minister for approval in the
beginning of next year, to orient , concretize activities to promote organic agricultural
 production, ensuring adequate scientific and practical basis, especially the development
of organic agriculture at any rate as well as the need to propose the main books of support
policies, credit preferences, trust and mortgage. The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Health to soon develop and
promulgate a set of processes on production and standards of organic agricultural
products in the spirit of whatever product, what to do then ensuring transparency and
scientific basis. Along with that, will replace Decree 210 on agricultural investment. The
Prime Minister stressed the need to form an organic agricultural development ecosystem,
an organic agricultural culture in rural areas and farmers.
 From 2005 until now, the government and ministries have had many policies and guidelines
to ensure food hygiene and safety, especially clean vegetables is always the most mentioned
issue. Among those policies and guidelines, we must mention VietGAP standards for safety
vegetable inspection. VietGAP is a good agricultural production standard in Vietnam based
on 4 criteria: production technical standards; Food safety includes measures to ensure no
chemical contamination or physical pollution when harvesting and tracing the product.
Manufactured according to VietGAP standard, it is considered as a travel document to bring
agricultural products to the world market.
 In addition to relying on domestic accreditation standards, the Government also encourages
people to adopt international standards for hygienic vegetables such as Global organic
certification, USDA organic certification, and real certification. Global GAP's global
agricultural production practices to choose the best clean vegetable products.
 Global organic certification PGS: PGS certified organic or hygienic vegetables are the ones
that have undergone a strict and regular inspection process, right before planting until after
packaging, to ensure the process Growing vegetables meets the standards of safe food or
organic food. PGS is reliable because firstly, this system was built and developed by IFOAM
- the Federation of International Organic Agricultural Movements. Next, it is because the
certification process works according to the mechanism "A home is not achieved, the whole
village is not over" - if only one household is found to be incomplete, all other farmers in the
region will not be able to Certification. Therefore, farmers and groups will check more
seriously.
 USDA Organic Certification: USDA is issued by the United States Department of
Agriculture. To be certified, the farm must follow the standard growing process in USDA's
64-page long guide. After that, invite an authorized farm expert to verify all elements from
neighboring areas, water, soil, seed, to farming methods, storage, etc. If certified experts will
check once a year to make sure the farm is still operating in accordance with standards. If
found to be against the standard, the farm will be subject to administrative penalties that can
reach millions of dollars.
 Certification of Global G.A.P global agricultural production practices: Global G.A.P. Be the
world safe vegetable market trust. Like other multinational certificates such as USDA, the
Global G.A.P standard is very strict with over 100 vegetable farming criteria, requiring
serious investment from the farm owner. And like USDA, the certification process also goes
through authorized experts' annual audits, and the penalties for standardization are extremely
scary.

Proposing solutions to promote production and consumption of clean

vegetables.
On the Stateside:

 The State needs to adjust legal documents and regulations related to food safety to suit
the situation of the country, overcome the situation of overlapping, pushing up
responsibilities, reducing the effectiveness of state management of documents Legal
version related to food safety. Besides, it is necessary to set out policies to prevent
harmful food products from outside of our country, adversely affecting people's health.
 The government should provide guidance and guidance to localities for their early
implementation and application. In addition, the government must regularly check and
evaluate localities on the implementation of government policies.
 The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development needs to propose mechanisms and
policies to motivate and encourage enterprises and people to link the supply chain of safe
agricultural products, especially clean vegetable products. Moreover, the ministry also
needs to invest in infrastructure and support large-scale production models of clean
vegetables associated with the domestic consumption market; continue to promote and
 encourage state and private enterprises to invest in agriculture, especially high-tech
production and application.
 Strengthen the role and responsibility of local authorities at all levels in the management
of food safety in each area and coordinate with mass organizations and social
organizations in propagating, mobilizing and monitoring to ensure food safety.
 The inspection and inspection of food safety should be done fairly, strictly and
effectively. Thereby creating a trust for consumers, protecting the reputation of
Vietnamese agricultural products on domestic and foreign markets.
 Training human resources in the management, training, scientific research, international
cooperation in the field of food safety.
 Promote communication to everyone to change behavior; actively praising the actions of
food safety protection of individuals or organizations.

On the manufacturer's side:

Vegetable producers need measures to support clean production development; ensuring food
safety according to the standards evaluated and certified by functional agencies. Manufacturers
need to improve professional ethics in business, avoid profit for purposes that adversely affect
consumers as well as affect the whole society.

On the consumer side:

Consumers need to improve their knowledge of goods quality, especially food quality. Every
citizen should be more cautious in choosing hygienic, clear origin food, avoiding buying poor
quality foods, adversely affecting health. Each consumer is responsible for reporting violations
of food hygiene and safety to competent State agencies for timely settlement.