Farmers of Chuc Son Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative in Chuong My district, Hanoi, check the bar code of their produce (Photo: VNA).

However, to meet the requirements of management agencies and consumers, the application of codes and barcodes needs more comprehensive solutions relating to management and technology.

Codes and barcodes help quickly and accurately distinguish different types of products. The code consists of a sequence of numbers, which allow people to identify factors relating to the goods.

According to the Vietnam Code and Barcode Association, in recent years, the application of codes and barcodes in production and business has become increasingly popular nationwide.

There are about 180 trade centres, 800 supermarkets, 4,000 convenience stores, and 9,000 family run stores that use them.

They’re also used to trace the origin of goods, especially foodstuffs, in order to ensure safety for consumers and to ensure the quality of exported goods.

Ha Minh Hiep, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality (VNDSMQ) said the use of codes and barcodes is an effective application of technology which aims to help consumers and enterprises quickly identify information about products. However, the technology hasn’t reached its full potential, he said.

Recently, barcode scanning software has been widely used by smartphone users to identify the origin of goods. According to a representative of the Vietnam Code and Bar Code Association, the use of smartphones to scan barcodes for the purpose of distinguishing real goods or counterfeit goods is a necessary effort. Unfortunately, many goods have a standard barcode but were fake or poor-quality.

According to Ha Minh Hiep, one of the key tasks that the VNDSMQ has been implementing is to build a national data centre storing all information on codes and barcodes.

“We will have information resources on products and goods, so enterprises, manufacturers, supermarkets, and retailers can access data and better develop their services,” he said.

The code provides consumers with products' data.

Phan Hong Nga, head of the code and barcode office under VNDSMQ, said according to the Ministry of Science and Technology’s regulations on code and barcode granting, use and management, enterprises must periodically notify the list of codes and barcodes of their products.

VNDSMQ’s free online software – idd.gs1vn.org.vn – was set up for businesses to declare product information quickly and accurately. The information is then automatically updated on the national data system.

VNDSMQ is submitting a project on managing the origin of products to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Once the project is approved, we will have additional tools to identify goods and remove poor-quality goods from the market.

Source: VNS/VNA