Organic vegetable retailer Natural Agriculture Village has introduced QR codes on its product packaging, which will allow consumers to see where their produce comes from.
Natural Agriculture Village president Bun Sieng, who is also a member of local distributor Green Gold, told The Post on Sunday that their suppliers produce safe vegetables and follow Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) guidelines.
Their produce will bear QR codes provided by her company and be registered with the provincial departments of agriculture.
“Consumers can identify where their vegetables came from and who is growing them,” Sieng said, adding that customers were able to test the codes at a vegetable booth at Aeon Mall Sen Sok City from February 14-16.
She said the departments of agriculture have issued GAP certificates to 42 farmers in eight provinces, including Kandal, Battambang, Pursat, Siem Reap, Tbong Khmum, Kampong Chhnang, Prey Veng and Banteay Meanchey.
“My company supplies an average of between 300 and 400kg of vegetables per day on the market.
“The company has signed an agreement with some of those farmers, pledging to buy vegetables from them at a price of around 2,000 riel [$0.50] per kilogramme,” she said.
More than 400 farmers have signed on with Green Gold, which distributes produce to Lucky Supermarket, Makro Cambodia, Aeon Mall Phnom Penh and local markets such as Central Market, Doeum Kor market, Phsar Depot market and Russian market.
Cambodians consume 500 tonnes of vegetables per day, at a daily cost of between $200,000 and $300,000, data from the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture shows.
The Kingdom is also estimated to import fruits and vegetables worth more than $300 million annually.
Last month, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries soft-launched the mobile app CamAgriMarket which connects Cambodia’s farmers with potential buyers and gives them access to critical market information.
The app gives farmers a platform to showcase their products to millions of potential buyers across the Kingdom.
