Information-poor environments: Asian tigers - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 256

most important organic crops are coffee, tea, grains, nuts, dry fruits,
rapeseed and sugar, whereas organic cotton is in development (Guo
Peiyuan, 2005 ). China is increasingly becoming active in the field of
green and organic food production and certification. Here, it is not
domestic command-and-control regulations that green (food) produc-
tion, but informational governance arrangements that link especially
international markets to local producers and traders.
In Vietnam, such organic labelling and certification schemes for the
domestic and international market are less developed. In HaNoi, 'clean
vegetables' 37 (vegetables produced with limited pesticides and chem-
ical fertilisers) are sold and some (tourist) restaurants advertise with
organic products, but the domestic certification and verification pro-
cedures are not clearly developed. At the moment, the Department of
Plant Protection (under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel-
opment) is in charge of issuing certificates for 'safe vegetables'. How-
ever, what this organisation really does is give a (temporary) certificate
for 'safe vegetable production cooperative' not for the product itself,
because the department cannot be responsible for the quality of vegeta-
bles. A few years ago, the Department of Plant Protection did also start
to patronise some villages in Donganh district (HaNoi) to produce safe
vegetables with the brand name 'Bao Ha'. Some companies, such as
Angiang Plant Project Service Company, launched their own vegetable
brand names, in this case called 'Sao Viet'. However, these brands have
hardly become known by domestic consumers in Vietnam. None of the
vegetable producers/retailing chains have really gained the full trust
of domestic consumers. In addition, no monitoring system exists in
Vietnam that can help consumers to identify vegetable quality and/or
trace back the vegetable to its origin. The major part of 'safe vegetables'
produced by these producers are sold at open markets at normal prices.
Another example of the underdeveloped environmental labelling is
Dalat, often considered the most famous vegetable producing area in
the South of Vietnam. Only recently, by the end of 2004, the Provincial

international certification organizations are active in China: BCS Oko-Garantie
GmbH (Germany), Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) (USA), ECOCERT
(France), Gesellschaft f ur Ressourcenschutz (GFRS) (Germany), IMO
(Switzerland), Japan Organic and Natural Foods Association (JONA) (Japan),
Quality Assurance International (QAI) (United States), the Soil Association
(United Kingdom) and SKAL International (FAO 2005).

37

As set by Decision 67-1998/QD-BNN-KHCN, issued by Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on April 28, 1998.