Saigon Co.op on May 8 unveiled the Co.op Organic brand and introduced four groups of organic products. (Photo: VNA)HCMCity (VNA) - Saigon Co.op on May 8 unveiled the Co.op Organic brand andintroduced four groups of organic products.
Italso signed an agreement with Vinamit JSC and Germany’s Binca Group to developits organic product chain.
Speakingat the inaugural ceremony, Diep Dung, Chairman of Saigon Co.op, saidsafeguarding consumers’ health and ensuring hygiene and food safety are SaigonCo.op’s top priorities.
Soit does lots of research and seeks collaboration and investment opportunitiesin the organic agriculture sector to bring customers shopping at its retailstores the best value, he said.
Itsinvestment in organic farming has helped reduce intermediary costs to ensurethe best prices for consumers, he said.
SaigonCo.op also attaches special importance to making products without hurting theenvironment, and thus invests in organic projects, he said.
Thecompany has invested in a 300ha organic farm in Ca Mau province to produceagricultural products that have received organic certification from the USDA,JAS of Japan, the EU, and Naturland, he said.
FromMay 8 Co.op Organic brand products meeting US and EU organic standards will besold at seven supermarkets in HCM City –Co.opmart on Ly Thuong Kiet, CongQuynh, Dinh Tien Hoang, Nguyen Kiem, Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Phu My Hung andCo.opXtra inside Sc VivoCity.
Thefour groups of products are jasmine and Japonica rice; cucumber, squash,tomato; choy sum, mustard green, water spinach; basa fish fillet and blacktiger shrimp.
Afterlaunching the Co.op Organic label, Saigon Co.op will continue to expand itslist of both food and non-food organic products, and seek to become a leader ofthe production-processing-distribution- consumption chain of organic productsin both the Vietnam and export markets, he said.
Demandfor organic farm produce has increased significantly both in Vietnam andglobally, and this offers good prospects for businesses investing in the field,he said.
DeputyMinister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam hailed the effortsmade by Saigon Co.op to produce organic farm produce.
TheVietnamese organic market is becoming increasingly dynamic, attracting manydomestic and foreign businesses.
Thearea under organic farming had expanded 3.6-fold since 2010 to 76,000ha in2015, he said.
His ministry would soon have in place policies,mechanisms and a national standards system to make it easy for businesses andfarmers to enter organic farming, he said.-VNA
VNA
