Vegetables grown under Viet Gap standards in Vietnam follow certain specifications to ensure food safety, which only raises the basic cost of vegetables from those grown normally and inorganically.
Supermarkets, shops, restaurants, hotels and exporters consume only 20-25 percent of vegetables grown under Viet Gap standards.
Vegetable growers and cooperatives are hence compelled to sell the vegetables at the same price as normal vegetables, which does not justify the time, effort and extra cost that has gone into growing fresh safe and organic vegetables.
Some cooperatives in Ho Chi Minh City tried to sell their vegetables directly in wholesale and retail markets, but were faced with high rentals of stalls.
The rent of one stall in Binh Dien or Binh Tay wholesale market is around VND200-300 million (US$9,600-14,400) per month, making it unaffordable.
Demands for vegetables in canteens of companies, schools and hospitals are huge, but mainly for normal inorganically grown vegetables that are much cheaper. On the other hand if all these places use Viet Gap organic vegetables, then cooperatives will not be able to meet the demand.
Nguyen Van Duc Tien, head of the Plant Protection Department in HCMC, said that wholesale markets should rent their stalls per hour instead of monthly basis, to ease financial burden for Viet Gap vegetable growers.
The city should have a policy to assist farmers to supply Viet Gap vegetables in wholesale and retail markets as this organic vegetable is currently only being sold in supermarkets and shops.
