Information, trust and market outlet choice for vegetables: The case study in Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

Being dominated by the traditional markets after a long time, the retail market for vegetables has recently experienced a dramatic change, as Ho Chi Minh City consumers start moving toward modern store formats such as supermarkets and mini-supermarkets. One of the reasons is that the traditional retail channels fail to assure food safety. This study analyzes the impacts of (1) trust in sellers and governance concerning food safety and (2) channels of information related to food safety, on the frequency of purchasing vegetables at different retail channels. Data collected from a survey of 254 vegetable purchasers in Ho Chi Minh City was analyzed using the Seemingly Unrelated Negative Binomial Regression. The results indicate that those who trust food safety governance tend to purchase vegetables more frequently at traditional markets, and thus enhancing food safety governance would improve the performance of traditional markets. In addition, those who seek information related to food safety from radio and television tend to purchase vegetables more frequently at supermarkets. Finally, purchasers are driven to vegetable specialty stores by word of mouth and therefore these stores may attract more purchasers via this information channel.

Keywords

• an toàn thực phẩm
• lựa chọn nơi mua
• rau