By Quoc Hung and Minh Tam - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC - Supermarkets, wholesalers and several other Vietnamese businesses last week once again decided to remove monosodium glutamate and other seasoning products made by Vedan from their shelves to boycott the polluting firm.
Vietnam’s leading retail store chain operator Saigon Co.op, owner of Co.opMart supermarket chain, on Thursday decided to no longer sell Vedan products at 45 Co.op Mart outlets in the country and 11 Co.op Food stores in HCMC since August 5.
“This decision is made to support farmers of HCMC, Dong Nai and Ba Ria - Vung Tau in their lawsuit against Vedan for polluting the Thi Vai River,” said deputy general director of Saigon Co.op Nguyen Thanh Nhan in a statement.
“We want Vedan to find a way to retrieve their products from the market until they can fix the pollution problem and satisfactorily resolve their matters with the farmers.”
Nhan said Co.opMart supermarkets prefer to purchase and distribute products of suppliers that have a proper waste treatment facility, ensuring treated waste to meet environmental standards and certified by relevant authorities.
“We have signed a cooperation program with the Green Business Awards (organized by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and HCMC’s People’s Committee).
“Companies that have been certified as Green Businesses will be entitled to distribute their products in our stores,” Nhan added.
Similarly, all Big C Vietnam supermarkets also have removed Vedan’s products from their shelves to boycott the polluting firm.
Some other supermarkets in the north and central regions of the country have also voluntarily stopped buying and selling Vedan’s products. They said they would sell the products again after Vedan repair the environmental problem and pay farmers’ damages.
Meanwhile, German-invested wholesale chain operator Metro Cash & Carry with nine wholesale centers in HCMC, Hanoi, Haiphong, Danang, Can Tho, Bien Hoa and Dong Nai late last week also told Daily that it supported Dong Nai farmers’ claim for pollution compensation from Vedan.
From last Friday, all Metro wholesale centers in the country withdrew Vedan’s products from sales areas.
The public has viewed the product boycotts as positive reactions from distributors and consumers to Vedan’s serious environmental damages. The protest has come also as a result of drawn-out delays and compensation failures.
However, another HCMC-based chain, Maximark, has not joined, saying that Vedan’s products meet quality standards and will only be removed from its shelves if customers boycott them.
Co.op Mart, Big C, Maximark and other supermarket chains boycotted Vedan’s products in October 2008 after it was caught discharging untreated wastewater directly into the Thi Vai River in Dong Nai Province a month earlier.
But they relented after Vedan pledged to compensate the victims.