Fish retailers received equipment at the Tan An market, Buon Ma Thuot city, Dak Lak province in order to improve standards of hygiene in fish retailing. The purpose is to help traders to better preserve the quality and food safety of their fish products.
Fish market traders in Vietnam need more modern equipment in order to enable hygienic processing, handling, storage and retail of frozen, live, fresh-on-ice fish and cooked/prepared fish. Consensus was reached among relevant partners on the list of equipment to be procured, as well as a list of intended recipients. The event was attended by both the local authorities and fish traders.
The procured items under the Danida funded Fisheries Sector Programme Support II (FSPS II) were handed over to 48 traders, 44 of whom were women (92%) at an official ceremony on September 29th 2010 at Tan An market.
The equipment includes water oxygenators, industrial-grade waste bins, plastic chopping boards, insulated ice boxes and aluminium retail trays to encourage replacement of wooden chopping boards and bamboo trays which are difficult for traders to clean and which pose a food safety risk.
The province intends to build on this success by repeating similar exercises in other pilot districts, such as the town market in Ea Kar district and Ea Phe market in Krong Pak district. The intention is to include additional equipment such as stainless steel tables for displaying fish products (instead of displaying them on the floor), as well as improving basic market hygiene by cementing the floor and improving sewerage and water supply systems in fish trading areas.
