These days, people can see some students in the blue uniform shirt of the Youth Union selling bananas on a cart with a band written "Nông sản Khánh Vĩnh - Khánh Sơn" (means agricultural products of Khanh Vinh and Khanh Son).
These days, people can see some students in the blue uniform shirt of the Youth Union selling bananas on a cart with a band written “Nông sản Khánh Vĩnh - Khánh Sơn” (means agricultural products of Khanh Vinh and Khanh Son). This is an activity under a project of Medical Committee Netherlands – Vietnam aiming to partly consume agricultural products of mountainous areas.
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Bananas sold by students
Going to near Vinh Hai Market one day, we saw a banana cart pushed by a student of Nha Trang University named Vo Le Tan Vinh selling well. While selling, he introduced buyers that this was a model aiming to help farm product sales of ethnic minority people in mountainous areas. This job has been introduced to some students by the university’s Student Support Center. Under this model, bananas are carried from two mountainous districts Khanh Son and Khanh Vinh and directly delivered to students. Then, they sell bananas on carts. They often sell bananas near Nha Trang University and in streets like 2-4, Bac Son, Dang Tat, Mai Xuan Thuong, etc. from 7am to 12am and from 3 pm to 7pm.
Another student named Tran Tien Luan who has done this job for 2 weeks shared that beside helping growers sell their products, the job earns them some money for their study. Each of them are paid VND15,000 for one-hour sale. If they can sell more than 15 kilograms of bananas/hour, they will be paid VND20,000/hour each. “Sales also bring us experience in communication before graduate”, Luan confided.
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According to Dang Thi Phuong, an official of the Student Support Center of Nha Trang University, it’s a practical and meaningful project. The products have no harmful plant protection drugs, so they are safe for health. That’s also a reason the project has attracted more and more participants. Just launched but it has drawn 30 students.
That students in blue shirts of Youth Union selling bananas for ethnic minority people has also received support of buyers. Buying bananas from a cart, Tran Thi Phuong Dung living in Vinh Hai Ward said, “Farm products of ethnic minority people are pure. There should be more meaningful ways like this.”
A practical project
The model is in framework of a project to survey agriculture and nutrition for community in mountainous areas funded by Medical Committee Netherlands – Vietnam (MCNV), a Dutch non-govermental organization majoring in medical aid and community support. In Khanh Hoa Province, Hong Tuyet Private Enterprise (based at 48A Le Thanh Phuong Street, Nha Trang) has been chosen to take charge of product underwriting for the project.
According to director of the company Nguyen Thi Hong Tuyet, the project aims to party consume agricultural products for the ethnic minority people in mountainous areas, avoiding price lowering in harvest crops. Thus, the project’s fund advances no-interest capital for farmers to product, and then all the products will be purchased. Now, 11 communes where 90% of the residents are ethnic minority people have joined the project. If their products like fruits, farm products, meat, etc. are purchased with high prices by traders, farmers will refund the capital for the project and get the profit. With unsold products, the project will consume all at good prices.
Launched since end 2014 but the project has just done mobile sales on street since end 2015. Up to now, under the model of mobile farm product sales, there have been 5 carts selling bananas. “In the time to come, we will have more carts to sell other kinds of agricultural products such as other fruits and meat. In addition, we are going to open online markets as well as stores to sell pure farm products in Nha Trang”, Tuyet said.
Vinh Thanh
Translated by T.T
