Many vegetable growers in Da Lat with VietGAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certificates have been sourcing normal produce from other markets citywide to ensure supply to fulfill their orders for supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City.

Every day, some 40 tons of vegetables from different sources are transported from the Central Highlands city to HCMC, where they sit on shelves behind labels of “clean, high-quality vegetables”.

Phong Thuy Co Ltd is considered one of the largest vegetable growers in Da Lat, specializing in supplying fresh vegetables for the Co.op Mart and Lotte Mart chains.

Under its contract with Co.op Mart, the company commits to “supplying fruits and vegetables of VietGAP quality with origins of Da Lat.” But besides a fleet of frozen container trucks in charge of transporting the products southwards, Phong Thuy Co also has about five trucks and tractors which it sends to markets and farms citywide to source vegetables.

Surprisingly enough, while Phong Thuy Co currently does not grow carrots, it still supplies 1.3 – 2.2 tons of the produce to Co.op Mart on a daily basis.

The products are sourced from a vegetable-growing facility called Nam, based in Da Lat’s Duc Trong District. It has a 30-hectare area of carrot crops, but has yet to obtain the VietGAP certificate.

Upon buying produce from the facility, employees at Phong Thuy Co will wash them and pack them into plastic boxes, as per VietGAP requirements, and load them onto the frozen container trucks for transport to the HCMC-based supermarkets.

Besides sourcing carrots from the Nam facility, Phong Thuy Co also buys from other facilities and markets, some of which also source the produce from different farms, some of which have no business license.

Supply pressure

The Duc Thanh Co Ltd, another vegetable growing company, also conducts dishonest business.

Duc Thanh Co has a 4.2 hectare crop of vegetables under VietGAP, but has linked with other growers to increase its material area to 50 hectares.

Director Vu Trong Duc admitted that the farmers supplying produce for his company do not have a VietGAP certificate.

He also said that only 50 percent of the one ton of vegetables the company supplies to Big C, Maximark, and Hiway are real VietGAP produce.

Duc said his partners all know of these mixed supplies, but they do not complain as their buying prices for VietGAP products are similar to those of normal produce.

As for Phong Thuy Co, while it is only capable of supplying eight tons of vegetables per day, the company has inked contracts for a total daily supply of 20 tons for Co.op Mart, and 1.5 tons for Lotte Mart.

“Under the pressure of completing these contracts, we have to source from other growers,” director Nguyen Hong Phong said, adding that he has informed his partners of these mixed supplies.