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Enhancing the quality of agricultural products by setting up Short Food Supply Chain under the EVFTA

The Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has now come into force which shall bring up tremendous opportunities to promote the export of Vietnamese agricultural products to EU’s market. Accordingly, 71 percent of EU imports from Vietnam will be tariff-free from the moment the EVFTA takes effect, rising to over 99 percent across the next seven years. The reduction of import tariffs supports the expansion of the export market of Vietnam agricultural products such as rice, sugar, honey, vegetables and seafood, creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese agricultural products to access to the market of 27 EU member countries. However, Vietnamese enterprises and cooperatives will face many challenges related to requirements on food safety, animal and plant quarantine measures, Rules of Origin, Geographical Indication Protection, etc. Enhancing the quality of agricultural products through and by an effective food supply channel/chain is expected to support Vietnamese agricultural products to meet requirements stated in the EVFTA in relation to the food safety traceability. Sustainable short food supply chains are defined as food systems with direct producer-consumer relations including different types of direct sales such as farm outlets, farmer’s markets, local food shops or spatially extended for exporting. SFSCs are often perceived as a way to implement a more sustainable food system that provides healthier and better quality food with reasonable prices, more value added to the food producers and environmental protection. SFSCs can also be seen as means to restructure food chains in order to support sustainable farming methods and generate resilient farm based livelihoods. Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) is characterized by few intermediaries between producer and consumer; sometimes producers distribute products directly to consumers. The short food supply chain aims to provide consumers with products that reflect characteristics such as: local identity, nature, healthiness and trust worthiness (Luane et al., 2018) Policies and/or regulations to encourage the development of sustainable short food supply chains is so far still absent to a large degree in Vietnam. Also, the direct linkage among farmers and agricultural enterprises/cooperatives remains weak with lots of intermediaries in between that lead to the missing of requirements for food safety and traceability. A growing body of literature on food supply chains show that the influence of the free trade agreement (FTAs) from the past have a strong impact on the development of SFSC. This is especially relevant for the post-socialist countries and EU member’s states. Several studies on SFSCs have been implemented in the European Union such as Poland, France and Germany, etc.

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Currently, the SFSCs is almost a new concept in Vietnam and does not attract much attention. Vietnam has no policies to encourage the development of sustainable short supply chains of agricultural products. At the same time, the linkage among farmers and agricultural enterprises/cooperatives are still weak; Cooperatives and farmers - main actors in SFSC are often limited in getting access to knowledge of safety standard production, marketing products and advanced technologies, etc. As a result, households, cooperatives, and enterprises do not have stable conditions to meet requirements for EU’s regulations. The distribution system of agricultural products is still inadequate and involves many intermediaries. Therefore, agricultural producers struggle with several problems including strong price fluctuations, financial constraints to implement technological innovations.

This project, therefore, targets four groups of SFSC that includes: first, those   producing agricultural products such as households/ farmers in rural areas. Second, cooperatives, autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise will support and buy household’s products. Third, competent authorities at both local and policy levels who will be in charge of providing technical support to farmers, cooperatives and enterprises in SFSC in the process of producing products and exporting to EU market under the EVFTA. They can also help farmers, cooperatives, and enterprises enhance their awareness regarding EU’s food safety regulations. The support of competent authorities also increase the benefits for all actors and relevant stakeholders in the SFSC by promoting market development for local products and strengthen the competitiveness of farmers, enterprises, and cooperatives in agricultural chains. Fourth, consumers who are either domestic or abroad at final destination of the SFSCs.

The project is aimed at enhancing the quality [and so as competitiveness] of agricultural products through setting up and implementation of a short food supply chains. Results generated from the survey research are also expected an important policy recommendation contributing to the sustainable short food supply chains in particular and agricultural sector strategic development at local level as well.

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Contact

Vu Thi Thu Phuong

Vu Phuong

Project Manager

Phuong.Vu@kas.de +84 24 3 7186194 /17 +84 24 37186197

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