Features

Food safety is an integral part of the agricultural economies of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). It is indispensable to the region’s agri-trade as much as it remains a pervasive health concern.

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Rural communities in the Mekong region suffer from a shortage of safe drinking water. A “rain school initiative” is helping the people to achieve lasting improvements to their water security in times of climate change.

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In celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day, Ms. Than Tha Aung, MI’s Program Coordinator under the Sustainable Energy and Environment Department, reflected on our work to advance women empowerment towards sustainable development in the region.

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Since the early 2000s, over 50 interns have been accepted at MI. Read the experience of Mr. Tanadech Sriwanchai, a Khon Kaen University student, who interned at MI from May 17 to July 2, 2021.

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Beginning in 2014, MI has been promoting gender equality. It has since expanded its work by leading international exchanges among governments, business groups, the academe, and NGOs to help advance responsive gender mainstreaming for holistic development gains in the GMS and across the world.

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MI highlights recovery strategies from the PROSAFE Forum in Cambodia to help agri-food MSMEs scale up their competitiveness and resiliency against a pandemic climate.

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Ms. Phonephilom Douangmalalay was one of 12 GMS nationals who completed MI’s Young Scholars Program. As a hardworking and dedicated political coordinator at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lao PDR, she has consistently applied MI’s lessons in program management, networking, and advocacy in her line of work.

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For countries in the GMS, agri-food is a driver of food security, poverty alleviation, and regional economic integration. Given the abundant agri-food diversity in the region, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam have tapped these resources to secure holistic socioeconomic development.

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Meet Mr. Vandong Thorn’s, who is keeping his Hanchey Bamboo Resort afloat in the midst of a pandemic with support from MI.

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Learn how the public and private sectors in Cambodia are helping standardize the quality and safety of horticultural products to boost market competitiveness of agri-businesses.

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Since the start of the pandemic, Mr. Pongpoonat Rungrueng has been working hard to apply what he has learned from MI to strengthen his farmstay's branding and marketing strategies for the survival of his business.

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Learn how Ms. Moh Moh Myint Khine, Regional Director of NTL Naigai Trans Line Company, Limited, has adapted what she has learned from MI to strengthen her international freight forwarder business in Myanmar. 

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Mr. Nguyen Dai Ngoc is a committed food safety champion. As an officer of the Food Safety Management Authority in Ho Chi Minh City, he has effectively led campaigns to help government officials, business owners, street vendors, and even students contribute to protecting Vietnam’s food industry and public health.

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Meet Dr. Thazin Han, a hardworking and dedicated scientist under the Department of Research and Innovation from Myanmar’s Ministry of Education, who has completed several MI trainings and even facilitated one to promote Science, Technology, and Innovation in the GMS.

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A farmer's group in Myanmar is making available natural and certified safe fruits and vegetables with support from PROSAFE.  

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An MI alumni is helping communities in Cambodia transform their organic fruits and vegetables into popular dried or fermented products and beverages for increased revenue.

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Ms. Phang Chantha, a proud MI alumna, is sharing proper packaging and storing techniques of fruits and vegetables to reduce food safety risks in provinces of Cambodia.

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In Ho Chi Minh City, an MI alumni is leading information campaigns, to help street food vendors better understand and apply food safety practices.

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See how the popular Healthy and Happy Organic Farm (H2O) Company has increased its clientele through digital platforms after completing an MI training course.

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Myawaddy Township spans more than 1,210 square miles which cover 50 villages within 15 village tracts. Characterized by its fertile topography, the township stands as the main producing area of maize in Kayin State accounting for around 65 percent of the total sown area in the country. In one of the villages of Ingyin Myaing in Palugyi village tract, a 47-year-old woman wears a hat of different kinds. Meet Daw Yee Win, a smallholder maize farmer, agro-input dealer, lifelong learner, and mother of three.

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Contract farming is a viable and popular strategy to help smallholder farmers gain better access to inputs and markets. Stories of farmers who have prospered under such an agreement are laudable but perhaps even more so that of women-farmers. A group often overshadowed in the traditionally male-oriented sector that is farming, women-farmers are increasingly being recognized for their participation in farming activities – contract farming being one of them.

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Globalization has sparked an increase in consumer demand for a wider variety of foods, resulting in a longer, if not more complex, global food chain as well as the industrialization of agricultural systems in order to meet this rising demand. This also means that more actors and players are concerned in the big task of ensuring that food remains healthy and safe -- from point of production all the way to consumption.

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There’s a bright future for the youth in agriculture. This perhaps best captures how Mr. Bounyoung Thavisouk, the 31-year old director of Saybua Rice Mill in Khammouane, Lao PDR, feels about the younger generation’s place in agriculture.

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Economic cooperation is central to the development of nations but perhaps more so for the countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). In the GMS, such cooperation has specially been given focus in the development of the economic corridors, designed to improve mobility and connectivity and more importantly, liven up economic activity.

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In the rice farming industry, they play a significant role in integrating production improvements and market opportunities for farmers. In countries like Lao PDR where farming is confined largely among smallholder farmers and farmer groups, rice millers are central figures in the pre- and post-production activities of rice farmers.

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What started as a modest 3-hectare farm has come a long way to positioning itself as a multi-awarded and certified coconut exporting business. Located in Bang Phae District, Group of Export Organic Fruit Product was established in 1993 by Prayoon Visuttipaisan, an agronomist with over 25 years of farming experience. Weathering the business finally paid off in 2011 when the Group received the highest national award for farming from the Thai government, consequently jumpstarting its success.

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are said to be the new drivers of economic growth, and this could not be any truer in Cambodia with its more than 530,000 SMEs according to a 2011 report. Of this number, a staggering 82 percent are accounted for by SMEs in the food and beverage sector. Serving both domestic and international markets, these SMEs acknowledge that food safety control systems are a must, and not simply an option. The close association between food safety regulations and control and the overall competitiveness of their products is not lost on them.

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With increased integration into the global food value chain, supply and demand are transcending borders, thereby, creating opportunities for emerging economies. New opportunities ranging from wider market access to favorable pricing strategies are inevitably challenged by the lack of knowledge and weak compliance to food safety standards and regulations. As such, education on international food quality and safety standards has become a key thrust area for developing countries to ensure market access and trade competitiveness.

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When it comes to food, nothing is more enjoyable than a delicious, good meal, but nothing is more important than safe food. Behind every bite and morsel is a complicated network of actors that have worked to make sure that what we are eating is good AND safe food. The inability to properly address food safety risks also means quality failures, which can, in turn, negatively impact public health, trade in food, and consumer confidence.

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While nearly 95 percent of coffee produced in Vietnam is Robusta, Quang Tri Province—with over 5,000 hectares of coffee—cradles one-seventh of the country’s Arabica production. Evidently, almost 8,000 households in the province rely on Arabica as their main source of income.

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It all made sense for Khin Ohmmar Moe, Managing Director of Yangon-based Sabanan Company, Ltd., to connect the dots backwards. What was originally intended as a local trading and women’s garment business would be transformed into a coffee-producing social enterprise. To do well and to do good, Moe established Karen Coffee in early 2017. She was driven by the aspiration of succeeding at one’s business paralleled with the goal of empowering women and ethnic groups in Karen State and eventually, contribute to her country’s socio-economic development.

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Khmer Artisanry may be a small dot in the growing SME industry of Cambodia but for founder Seila Polham, the positive inroads they have made as an enterprise are more than encouraging -- achievements that would not have been possible without the hard work of her weavers, her staff and the assistance of partners like Mekong Institute (MI) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

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Small and medium-sized food enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Cambodian economy. However, the country’s food manufacturing sector continues to face numerous challenges in ensuring that the food processed and distributed, especially by local agro-processors, are safe.

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Mr. Chanthavy Thongmanichanh was all smiles when he greeted us at the entrance of their rice mill. He was wearing a gray pullover and a white hard hat when he ushered us into their small business empire. “I just finished work, sorry,” he said shyly as he brushed some dirt off his shirt.

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Branding can make or break a product’s performance in the market, and in the face of competition, the right branding can make a product stand out in a sea of similar competing products. With Thailand aiming to join China and India as the world’s top producers of organic rice, it is only expected for rice producers in the country to want to set themselves apart from the still few but remarkably significant competition.

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Fishery is an integral part of Myanmar’s economy. According to a 2016 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization, fishing is the main livelihood of over one million fishers in the country. Likewise, not only is fish a staple in Burmese meals, but it is also a prime export product.

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Pangasius, or more popularly known by its local name tra, is one of Vietnam’s major export products. Top import markets are the US and EU, and in the last couple of years, China. In 2015, the tra fish started making its way to South Korean and Russian markets, all thanks to a free trade agreement inked between Vietnam and these countries.

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Koh Kong Province in Cambodia may not be the first place to come to mind when the word fish sauce is mentioned, but members of the sea water fish sauce cluster in the province are determined to change this.

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