Despite the high prices, organic vegetables and fruits are selling well.
“If you begin tilling the land today and then sow seeds, you will be able to harvest vegetables and carry to the market in 40 days. But it took us three years to satisfy the international standard for organic vegetables,” said Pham Phuong Thao, director of Mua Trade & Service Company, which owns the Organica shop chain.
Thao’s company, which has a 1.8 hectare farm in Long Thanh district of Dong Nai province, has a certificate on organic farming in accordance with USDA (US Department of Agriculture) and EU standards from the Dutch Control Union.
Thao said ‘organic farming’ means ‘non-chemical’ and the farming requires much time and big money to improve land, hire workers to trap insects and eliminate wild grass.
Before hitting the shelves at the shops, the vegetables and fruits from the farm, about 100 kilos a day, have to undergo preliminary treatment at a certified establishment, and are labeled ‘organic’ after they are recognized as meeting standards.
As the production costs are high, organic vegetables are expensive in Vietnam. Leaf vegetables are priced at VND60,000 per kilo on average, more expensive than chicken which is sold at VND50,000 per kilo.
Meanwhile, a kilo of organic rice is VND80,000, which is five times higher than normal rice, and a kilo of shrimp is VND700,000 (16-18 shrimp per kilo).
According to a branding expert, Vietnam only has a few internationally certified organic brands, namely Hoasua Foods, Organik and Organica. However, there are numerous self-appointed organic brands.
Vo Minh Khai, general director of Vien Phu JSC, which owns Hoasua Foods, said since there are so many ‘counterfeit’ organic vegetables, he decided to sell products directly to the market, not through sales agents, to prevent counterfeit goods.
Meanwhile, Tran Thanh Ha from Great Viet Nam, which owns ‘Rau sach vuon cua me’ brand (Clean vegetables from mother’s garden), said that she supplies many organic products to the market, but ‘it now is not the right time to run for international certificate’.
Ha said that it would be very costly and time consuming to obtain international certificates, which would make production costs higher.
According to Ha, if organic vegetables meeting the EU and US standards are given 10 marks, her cultivation process would deserve the mark of 6.5, while GAP standards (using chemicals within control) receives a 5.
Nguyen Phuoc Trung, an agriculture expert, noted that many organic vegetable companies hesitate to hire international organizations to certify their products because of the high costs. Therefore, he suggested setting up Vietnamese standards for organic products so as to help businesses cut production costs.
Source: vietnamnet.vn