AGAINST FAKES WITH FRESH VEGETABLES

Through the relationship with his partners, Dr. Tran Dinh Lam, Director of the Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies (HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities) often organizes workshops with the participation of international scientists and some enterprises in HCM City as well as in several surrounding provinces, where participants can share experiences in doing business to help overcome difficulties.

The topic of a recent workshop was about developing eco-agriculture and anti-counterfeit. The two subjects seem irrelevant to each other, but in the viewpoint of professors from Japan and Italy, they share one common point: the need for sustainable development in businesses.

Growing vegetables in the spirit of “doing big business”

Dr. Kim Ki-Hueng (University of Tokyo, Japan) said that it was impossible for Japan to create an eco-agriculture overnight, to have supplies of fresh vegetables for consumers like they do now. We have to take long-term benefits into consideration when investing in eco-agriculture because we cannot expect to quickly recover our capital and earn interest as we do in other sectors.

Given the alarming situation of vegetables and fruits infected with poisonous chemicals which has been reflected by the mass media, we are now having a chance to develop eco-agriculture. There have been areas specializing in growing fresh vegetables, but consumers do not appreciate them due to high prices. What matters here is consumers’ awareness and investors’ determination as well as active support of authorities at all levels.

According to Prof. Dr. Ikemoto Yukio (University of Tokyo), in the 1980s, the Japanese favored eco-agricultural produce and fake products still appeared in the market then. As a result, in 1992 the Japanese government introduced regulations on examining and issuing licenses. It established a set of standards for eco-agricultural produce in 1999. Only manufacturers meeting this set of standards were issued labels and were allowed to distribute their produce nationwide; the others were in a small market share only. This action of the Japanese government forced manufacturers wishing to do big business to have sufficient investments by setting up cooperative societies or joint-stock companies.

The core matter to make eco-agricultural produce popular is that manufacturers have to accept low interest (the State provides support if necessary), and consumers have to pay more attention to taking care of their health, and everyone particularly must protect the environment with their most practical actions. Prof. Dr. Ikemoto Yukio said that he just visited a farm owned by a Japanese young man named Siokawa, 28 years old, who has hired rented a 0.53 hectare plot in Tay Nguyen to grow fresh vegetables since 2010.

Now Siokawa has 150 contracts for supplying fresh vegetables to consumers in HCM City, bringing stable employment for ten people. Through Siokawa’s encouragement, people around his farm also grow fresh vegetables, whose produce follow the cultivation process and are properly examined.  Siokawa’s company then purchases most of their produce; the rest is sold to people around the area. The awareness of environment protection and the health of the people living around Siokawa Nikoniko’s farm have gradually been shaped.

Morality of businesses is the same as that of a nation

Fakes and counterfeits have become a global concern, but according to Prof. Giovanni B. Ramelo (University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy), it is very difficult to prohibit companies from producing fakes and counterfeits because human beings, especially the youth, always need status. If they cannot afford to buy branded products, they often use fakes and counterfeits to “show off their status”.

Also according to this professor, in a certain viewpoint, counterfeiters make manufacturers continuously develop creativity to create new designs and enhance the quality of their products so that their trademarks will be strengthened. If new designs are continuously released into the market, counterfeiters will be unable to follow as quickly. This is also a way for businesses to “save themselves”, not just complaining and waiting for settlement from authorities.

Dr. Kawashima Nobuki (Doshisha University, Japan) shared the opinion of Prof. Giovanni, for if people have demands for something, there will be its supplies. However, the governments cannot be lax in controlling fakes and counterfeits since we need to eliminate the bad and support the good.

The digital age nowadays is different from the age of self-sufficiency. Countries that do not respect business morality will lose their reputation, and some will even be separated. When they want to do business seriously, people find it hard to trust them, which will cause the collapse of their whole economic system. Prof. Koji Domon (Waseda University, Japan) said that enterprises manufacturing low-quality products will have more advantage in countries where the protection law is not strictly implemented.

In countries where this law is strict, businesses producing average and high quality goods will be more advantageous since manufacturers of low-quality products will be fined, or even put in jail. As a result, they have to invest more in technology and grey matter in order to produce quality products, helping their country’s economy sustainably develop, or they will have to close.

Source: translated from an article (by Vu Gia) in Doanh nhân Sài Gòn Newspaper (online version) (http://doanhnhansaigon.vn/online/the-gioi-quan-tri/goc-nhin-quan-tri/2013/01/1071194/rau-sach-chong-hang-gia/)

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