A competitive market in search of public regulations : the case of Hanoi food supply in the north of Vietnam

Using the example of food supply in Vietnam, this paper describes how a centrally planned system gave way to a successful competitive market in terms of price and supply effectiveness. It also shows that this evolution brought new problems, such as poor performance of some commodity chains in ensuring satisfying food quality, food safety and price stability. It appears that traders do not feel equipped to cope with these problems and are demanding more public intervention. The paper argues that solving these problems might take more than just more state intervention. It builds on recent and on-going field studies on marketing problems in the Red River Delta undertaken a collaboration project between the Centre [de Coopération] International de Recherche en Agronomie pour le Développement (CIRAD), the Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute (VASI) and the Regional Co-ordination Centre for Research and Development of Coarse Grains, Pulses, Roots and Tuber Crops in the Humid Tropics of Asia and the Pacific (CGPRT Centre).