SUPERCHAIN project

Linking rural poor households to supermarkets and other quality chains
AN IFAD/MALICA PROJECT

I Rationale
Small farmers in Vietnam and Laos face numerous constraining requirements to supply supermarkets including regular volume and quality. But supplying supermarkets and other quality chains, e.g. shops and restaurants, may also generate increased income opportunities for small farmers if they take advantage of their specific location and savoir-faire in terms of food commodities of special quality.

II Objectives
- Informing farmers, extension workers and decision-makers on the technical and institutional conditions for inclusion in the new high food value chains of small-scale farmers;
- Supporting farmers’ decisions on the different marketing options to reach new demands for vegetable safety, in particular, various forms of farmers’ organisations and contractual arrangements, in selected areas;
- Improving modern retailers’ assurance on food safety supplied by farmers’ groups
- Improving consumers’ assurance on food safety in various retail distribution points.

III Activities
- Evaluation of the buyers’ demand for selected products including for Vietnam IPM/safe vegetables, Hai Duong sticky rice and Cao Bang beef;
- Stakeholders’ information and networking, including supermarket buyers;
- Evaluation of the efficiency and fairness of various forms of farmers’ organisations and farmer-buyer relationships (intra-chain coordination)
- Promotion of reliable participatory quality guarantee systems by farmers’ groups;
- Preparing and disseminating guidelines on rural poor households’ access to high value chains;
- Farmers’ training on good farming and marketing practices.

IV Expected outputs
- Baseline appraisal of rural poor households access to high value chains for selected products and areas;
- Market information on consumers’ and retailers’ demand for quality criteria for selected products and areas;
- Training material on guidelines, standards, control procedures to guaranteeing product safety;
- Training guidelines on rights, commitments, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to improve the conditions of contract bargaining.

Duration
June 2007-June 2009

Funding
. IFAD
. CIRAD

Partners (Malica)

Vietnam
. VAAS (CASRAD/FCRI, FAVRI)
. IPSARD

Laos
. Nabong University
. Profil project

France
CIRAD, INRA

Project Coordination

Paule Moustier (CIRAD)
paule.moustier@cirad.fr
(Project coordinator)

Dao The Anh (CASRAD)
daotheanh@gmail.com
(Malica coordinator)

Some research results obtained in 2008 here