A farm-to-table supply chain to address food safety for fresh food in Vietnam

Food safety has been a major concern in Vietnam in recent years. Due to high-profile scandals of food contamination, foodborne diseases and food poisoning, Vietnamese consumers lost their confidence in the safety of food. Mitigating this problem, the idea of this project is to develop a farm-to-table supply chain that facilitates trade between producers and consumers more directly and incorporates with processes of food traceability and quality control. The environmental assessment and the literature review explored both opportunities and challenges to a farm-to-table supply chain as well as the lack of knowledge relating to the sustainable food value chain in Vietnam. Considering known and unknown knowledge, this thesis focused on exploring producers’ capability and consumers’ satisfaction to construct a business case that delivers the farm-to-table supply chain to consumers. On one side, a qualitative study was conducted to embrace insights of farmers’ existing practices and perspectives through in-depth interviews. On the other side, a quantitative study surveyed consumers’ fresh food shopping behaviour and expectations and their reaction to the proposal of a farm-to-table solution. Findings of the exploratory research were important materials to construct a business case that aims to address food safety in Vietnam. Overall, this report justified the idea of a  farm-to-table supply chain for fresh food in Vietnam and proposed a business case to deliver this solution to Vietnamese consumers.