On the morning of February 21st, Da Nang City Food Safety Management Board, in collaboration with Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), shared the results of the food system analysis and developed a development strategy for a “Food-Smart” city. This is an activity within the framework of a non-refundable support project of the Belgian Study and Consultancy Fund (SCF).

Competent authorities quickly test the fruit and vegetable samples from Hoa Cuong wholesale market, Da Nang.

Striving for 100% of vegetable production farms and small livestock farms to sign the commitments to implement safe production and husbandry.

The People's Committee of Da Nang city has just issued a plan on implementing food safety assurance in the area in 2019. The plan aims at 100% of vegetable production farms and small animal husbandry farms to sign commitments to implement safe vegetable production and safe husbandry as well as 90% of agricultural and aquatic product trading establishments in wholesale markets declaring their origins. In addition, in 2019, districts strive to have 100% of the establishments producing, processing, trading food and catering services in the city to be granted with food safety certificates.

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According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Dinh, VNUA’s expert, the advantage of Da Nang is that the policy of ensuring food safety and hygiene in recent times has had many breakthroughs. However, what needs to be overcome is that the links in food chains are still limited, the implementation of food traceability is not synchronized. The competition between the registered market and the spontaneous market as well as the increased risk of environmental pollution due to waste and by-products are also some issues of Da Nang’s food safety and hygiene. In the field of catching and trading seafood, most diary records of purchasing and supplying activities are mostly to cope with the management of competent authorities and to manage the financial statements instead of to focus on the declaration for the product traceability and the determination of the safety of seafood originating from the fishing areas.

Dr. Thai Thi Minh - Regional Director of Rikolto, an international NGO based in Belgium, said that the agricultural food system in markets in Da Nang comes from many sources and regional areas, largely from the Southern provinces, the Central Highlands and even from China. Therefore, Da Nang must strengthen the inspection and control of the vegetable and fruit value chains to ensure all vegetables on the market are produced safely. The city needs to quickly establish a traceability system for the value chains of seafood, pork and vegetables. In addition, disease control and environmental pollution caused by Da Nang's livestock waste also need to be professional. In the near future, Da Nang needs to complete the concentrated livestock area, improve and develop animal husbandry in association with the slaughtering and processing system.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tan Hai - Head of Da Nang Food Safety Management, food production serving the needs of people and visitors of Da Nang, a city for tour at present mostly depends on other provinces or are imported from abroad. Therefore, the management of food safety despite initially having advantages in mechanisms and policies still faces many challenges. "The implementation of a research project on food value chain analysis and the development of a “Food-Smart” city strategy by 2025, the vision will be the foundation for the formulation of policies and management orientation with the service for the consumers as the focus and the safety as the key", Mr. Hai said.

Ms. Krista Verstraelen - Director of SCF was pleased to announce that the project of analyzing food value chains and building a ‘Food-Smart’ city strategy by 2025, vision 2030 for Danang city is one of the ten bilateral development projects that Belgium and Vietnam are implementing. "Food safety is the top concern of every country. It will also be a bridge for Vietnam and Danang to coordinate with agencies, especially Belgian universities and research centers to construct a strategy for future “Food-Smart” city in the future. We are committed to working with the competent authorities to achieve some initial results of the projects”, said Ms. Krista Verstraelen.

Credit: http://cadn.com.vn, http://vnews.gov.vn, https://vtv.vn/