Since 2007, Fresh Studio has been contracted by a multinational wholesaler to manage and develop their vegetable and fish sourcing systems, with the aim to improve product quality and safety standards.

The assignment began with the establishment of a sourcing system in Dalat (Central Highlands of Vietnam). A certified sourcing system with over 150 contracted farmers was drawn up, and a new state-of-the-art HACCP certified pack house was designed and constructed. This system has been running very successfully for over 5 years, and the volumes produced, along with the number of farmers involved, are growing steadily. Every day the Fresh Studio sourcing team is handling over 150 different SKUs, preparing them for nationwide distribution to our client stores.

Inspired by the success of this project, our client asked us to develop a similar system for vegetables in the North of Vietnam, and for fish in Southern Vietnam.

Our aims are:

• To develop year round supply of guaranteed high quality and safe vegetables from North Vietnam, Fresh Studio is working with 100 smallholder vegetable farmers in the lowlands of the Red River Delta, as well as the poorer and more remote farmers located in the mountains in the North. Using the climatic advantage of the cooler mountains in North Vietnam, a regional solution is being developed to supplement the vegetable supply from the Red River Delta during the summer period, thus creating the possibility for year round supply of guaranteed high quality and safe vegetables from North Vietnam.

• Almost all investments and professionalization in the aquaculture sector of Vietnam have just focussed on pangasius and shrimp, which are the main seafood export products. But as our client targets the 88 million domestic consumers, nobody till date had developed a professional fresh fish sourcing and processing system targeting the 80 fish species which the Vietnamese love to eat. Within two years time Fresh Studio assisted its client to setup and manage the first fresh fish processing facility and developed a sourcing system which now every day sources fresh fish from over 100 well trained and certified fish farmers and 20 preferred marine and fresh water certified fish collectors.