World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 61

World Food Policy

Even though the empirical evidence
is mixed, it suggests that small-scale
farmers benefit from formal processes
of certification only when there is
government support (or the support of a
benevolent private trading company with
genuine concern for local development),
in particular in terms of training and
infrastructure, as well as fair contractual
arrangements (Van der Meer 2006;
Swinnen 2007; Blackmore and Keeley
2012).

Standardization and labeling is
a partial answer to distrust about food
safety because it gives consumers the
responsibility for choices, although it
does not take their political concerns
seriously
enough
(Brom
2000).
Concerns for food safety are mostly
of an individualistic nature, but it is
difficult to disentangle them from more
collective or societal concerns, such as
the environmental impact of chemicals
or Genetic Modified Organisms (GMOs)
used in food production.

Hence, the literature suggests
the following hypotheses: (i) proximity
in food chains comes low farmers’ cost
for quality assurance, but also limited
scope of operation; the impact on
customers’ trust in food safety is in the
form of mutual, dialogical trust, but at
the same time, opportunistic risks are
not completely dealt with; (ii) “abstract”
expertise systems that form the basis
of standardization imply high costs
at the expense of inclusion of smallscale farmers, but enable large scope of
operation and reduction of opportunistic
risks. The rest of the paper is a preliminary
attempt to test these hypotheses on the
situation of vegetable safety assurance
in Northern Vietnam. We consider here

quality assurance systems as mechanisms
of coordination in the chain which
ensure that quality is delivered according
to the purchasers expectations (Holleran,
Bredahl, and Lokman1999; Renard
2005).

A
preliminary
comparative
analysis of vegetable safety
assurance systems in Vietnam
Source of data

T

he data is drawn from the authors’
work in Vietnam in research and
development projects. We focused
on the following dimensions of vegetable
safety assurance systems: their costs,
the degree of interest or commitment
of farmers (measured by the number
of farmers involved, the trends in these
numbers), and consumers’ reliance on
these systems. We used the results of
various consumer surveys, in particular
one conducted in 2006 on 707 consumers
on the factors determining the perceived
safety of purchased vegetables, including
the place of purchase and the nature
of labeling (Mayer 2007). We also
conducted focus groups with members of
the Women’s consumer club. As regards
the origin of produce in the wholesale
and retail markets, surveys were made
at seven times of supply variation, in
2002 and 2003. A total of 1,369 traders
were interviewed in 2002, and 1,877 in
2003 with 180–350 traders surveyed
each time. Besides we identified all the
points of sale where vegetables have
some indication of their safety, e.g., in
the form of a label on the product, or a
certificate. Then we carried out cascade
interviews to trace back the suppliers

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