HCM City hopes technology can clean up dirty pork industry

The domestic value of the fresh pork segment reaches on average more than US$8 billion annually. However, the product quality of pork sold in Vietnam is not at a level consistent with international standards.

There can be no doubt that China’s safety scandal-plagued pork industry is a root cause of the problem in Vietnam.

China’s appetite for pork has skyrocketed over the last 10 years, and its farmers have struggled to meet demand. In 2006, Vietnam’s northern neighbour consumed 46 million metric tons of pork, according to figures of the US Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service.

By 2014, it had jumped to 57 million metric tons and has since tapered off to 55 million in 2015.

The added pressure on the food system in China has led to a bombardment of crises, from pork shortages leading to price hikes, to revelations of diseased meat being sold to consumers. It has also contributed to the emergence of new antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

It is also no secret that Vietnamese hog farmers competing with pork from China are under strong pressure to provide low priced meat and that far too many – like their Chinese counterparts – follow unscrupulous food safety practices with little regard for the health and wellbeing of others.

This makes the pork business in the Southeast Asian country one of the highest risks for people encountering a wide variety of pork related diseases caused by chemical residues and unhygienic conditions at slaughterhouses and the point of sale.

There have been many well-intentioned projects aimed at providing certified safe pork in a transparent and controllable manner by buttressing the pork value chain – from piglets to fresh and processed meat at the retail counter that have met with limited success throughout many parts of the country.

These projects have taken in to consideration the environmental issues as well as the welfare of workers and animals to meet the requirements of international and national certification standards (e.g. GlobalGAP, VietGAP) as well as customers’ expectations.

However, despite these successes, Ho Chi Minh City has remained a trouble spot where meat found to be contaminated with remnants of illegal food additives such as – Salbutamol and Clenbuterol – drugs usually used in medication for asthma, is commonplace.

To clean up the City’s pork industry, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade has taken things into their own hands to develop a pilot program in the Ben Thanh Market in District 1 and Hoc Mon Produce Wholesale Market in Hoc Mon District using blockchain technology to track the country’s pork supply for its retail outlets.

Blockchain technology is essentially a digital ledger that keeps track of information with an unchangeable ‘block’ of information. In this scenario, farm origination details, batch numbers, factory and processing data, expiration dates, storage temperatures, and shipping details are uploaded to the blockchain and linked through a code on the product package, say City officials.

The system in simple terms looks to track hogs from farms to slaughterhouses to wholesale and retail markets. Once fully implemented, consumers will be able to check the origin and journey of their pork by installing a free mobile application and entering a code on the packaging label.

It will, say City officials, directly address, and prevent, some of the problems the pork industry has encountered, like food safety and allow consumers to know exactly where the meat they’re purchasing is coming from.

Initially, the program will be carried out on a trial basis starting December 10 at registered units. It will officially be placed into operation March 1, 2017.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade, so far, 15 companies, 1,000 farms, 11 slaughterhouses, two main wholesale markets, 4 retail markets, 5 supermarket chains, and 59 supermarkets have registered to participate in the program.