German retailer Metro Group have trained more than 19,000 Vietnamese farmers and fishermen according to a report released by the company.
The report was released during a visit made by Dirk Niebel, German minister for economic and cooperation development, to Metro An Phu, in Ho Chi Minh City's District 2 on 9 March.
The training has helped many farmers and small cooperatives achieve GlobalGAP certification for fruits like pomelo, mango and star apple, helping them find new markets overseas.
Metro provides the training in conjunction with GTZ, a German development investment organisation, reported Vietnam News.
GlobalGAP certification indicates that a product has achieved international quality and safety standards for export.
Nam Roi pomelo (from My Hoa in Vinh Long Province), Cat Hoa Loc mango (from Hau River Farm in Can Tho) and Lo Ren star apple (from Vinh Kim in Tien Giang Province) are some of the Vietnamese fruits to receive certification.
According to the company report, Metro has invested more than €1m (US$1.37m) to help develop Vietnam's fresh produce supply chain since 2002.
"We are serving more than 600,000 business customers in Vietnam who should later provide the end consumer high quality and safe products," said Randy Guttery, managing director of Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam.
"By setting up a group-wide quality management system from farm to fork, Metro improves every single step of the local supply chain in Vietnam, and creates a win-win partnership with its professional customers and the local farmers."
