On Wednesday, Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Tran Van Mien played host to some representatives from the Belgian Vredeseilanden/VECO organisation, led by Director of VECO Viet Nam Hoang Van Tu.

Director Tu remarked, “VECO Viet Nam is a member of Vredeseilanden, an international non-governmental organisation which is involved in agriculture and is based in Leuven, Belgium.  For many years, it has enabled and supported small-scale farming households nationwide to increase their production capacity and develop their production models in a sustainable manner.  This has helped to significantly improve their living conditions, and enhance the quality of their agricultural products by using environmentally-friendly technologies”.

A local farmer working in a vegetable garden in Hoa Vang District

He said that Da Nang has great advantages for building and developing a safe food supply chain, including large clean vegetable growing areas and improved transport infrastructure.  He emphasised that VECO Viet Nam would deploy a project to develop a sustainable and safe food supply chain, including vegetables and rice sourced from Hoa Vang District’s Hoa Tien Commune.  This will help the city to increase the quality of food safety and hygiene, and create closer links between farmers and customers.

In reply, Vice Chairman Mien praised the project’s feasibility, saying he would like VECO Viet Nam to share its experience and cultivation techniques with Da Nang to help it develop this supply chain.  This will help raise awareness about safe vegetable growing amongst local farmers in order to win the trust of consumers.