>> Vedan meets all compensation demands
>> Vedan agrees to pay up
>> Consumers and retailers boycott Vedan’s products
>> MSG maker offers to pay up, farmers say it’s not enough
Taiwanese MSG maker Vedan has paid half of the compensation amount promised to farmers of Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province.
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| Vedan has finally agreed to fully compensate the amounts requested by farmers. (Illustrative photo) |
Vedan has transferred VND 22.87 billion (USD 1.2 million), 50% of the VND 45.7 billion amount into Can Gio District’s Farmer Association\'s (Ho Chi Minh City) bank yesterday as well as an amount of VND 500 million (USD 25,430) into Ho Chi Minh City\'s Farmer Association to relevant authorities for the investigation costs involved. Once the transferring process has been completed, the district\'s Farmer Association will proceed to distribute the payment to almost 840 affected households of farmers in the area.
Vedan has also sent VND 26.8 billion (USD 1.4 million), half of the VND 53.6 billion amount, along with VND 500 million for the investigation costs involved into Tan Thanh District’s People’s Committee (Ba Ria - Vung Tau) account. The Ba Ria - Vung Tau\'s Farmer Association said that they would start paying their farmers next month.
Currently, Dong Nai is the only province left with unresolved issues. Vedan had agreed to pay the VND 120 billion previously demanded however, the province\'s Farmer Association is still polling nearly 5000 farmers before deciding whether or not to accept the compensation amount.
According to statistics from the Institute of Natural Resources and Environment, there is a significant discrepancy between the degree of damages and the amount of compensation claimed by farmers in communes of the province.
The Vietnam Farmers Union has reportedly ordered the Farmer Associations of the 3 affected areas to work closely with relevant agencies and departments to keep farmers informed at all stages with the compensation process, preventing any misunderstanding from taking place.
Nguyen Duy Luong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Farmers Union, said that this coordinating act will protect the right and interests legally for farmers whose lives have been affected as a result of Vedan’s environmental violations.
Two years after Vedan was busted for discharging untreated wastewater into Thi Vai River, causing significant economic damages for local farmers, the company has agreed to pay 100% of the compensation amounts to these farmers, which equals almost VND 220 billion (USD 11.2 million)
Vedan had requested to be allowed to pay the amounts in two installments. The second half, which has been guaranteed according to the bank’s regulations, would be delivered between January 10 and 14, 2011.
Upon receiving compensation, the farmers of the 3 areas in question are expected to drop their lawsuits against Vedan. Before Vedan agreed to pay, their products had been rigorously boycotted by many retailers and consumers throughout Vietnam.
Vu Thi Hau, Deputy General Manager of Nhat Nam Group (in charge of Fivimart supermarket chain) said, “We have stopped selling Vedan’s products and demanded Vedan’s representative to retrieve their products from us. This will continue until Vedan can prove to us that they have fixed the environmental damage they caused and resolved their matter with the farmers.”
Many think that these strong reactions by Vietnamese consumers and retailers had forced Vedan to quickly find a solution to the problem and put it to rest.
