Indeed supermarkets may contribute to a higher demand of horticultural products and increase expectations for quality, safety, and presentation, while simultaneously excluding small growers from participating in procurement and contracts. The importance of supermarkets is growing especially fast in the southeast Asia region. Supermarkets are expanding in China 30% 40% per year, 2 3 times faster than other developing countries . According to USDA, China could support at least 9100 hypermarkets . In China growth of modern retailing markets is spreading from the early growth areas of Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing to inner western regions. This is already having a profound effect on the way that vegetables are produced in the country. In Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, super-markets account for 33% of the market while in Taiwan and Philippines the figure is closer to 63% .

The 10 supermarket chains with the highest growth rates in last decade included two supermarket chains from China and one from South Korea . And in Indonesia the lo-cal retail supermarket chain Ramayana is growing at 25% a year . The share of fresh vegetables sold through supermarkets in some countries and metropolitan areas of Asia such as Malaysia, Bangkok , Manila , South Korea and China is 35%, 30%, 15%, 11% and 10%, respectively . In Vietnam, where modernization of food retailing is only about 10 years old, and where wet markets are still the major source of food shopping, the supermarket’s share of vegetable pro- ducts increased from around 0.5% in 2000 to around 40% in 2007. The Metro supermarket chain has announced programs of assistance and consulting for 4000 growers and suppliers to help them to upgrade the quality,flood tray marketability, and competitiveness of their products . Outside of southeast Asia, supermarket sales in Kenya are growing at 18% a year. They are expected to become the dominant urban food retailers by 2011 . At Chile the supermaket Cencosud is growing at 30.5% a year .

The growing importance of supermarket outlets has implications of its own, regarding their methods of procurement and their quality standards. Supermarkets in the cities bring quality to the shelves. Vegetables are well packed and presented, providing scope for premium quality as well as novelty items. The difficulties that growers can experience is reflected in fairly rapid declines in the numbers of growers involved, as companies tend to delist suppliers who do not meet expectations in terms of volume, quality, and timely delivery. In Malaysia, for example, the Giant supermarket chain had 200 vegetable suppliers in 2001, but just 30 in 2003. In Thailand, similar changes have been seen following the introduction of a distribution center for the TOPS super-market chain.In Brazil the WalMart supermarket chain has about 1500 associated growers producing vegetables, of which 90% are large producers and only 10% are small producers.

The standards of quality, safety and presentation make it difficult for the small producers to compete. In Portugal and in other European countries the situation is similar. The market is getting more re-fined in terms of quality and yield expectations, and there is a clear demand for excellent hybrid vegetable cultivars . Success for vegetable growers will depend on their ability to access diverse markets and respond promptly to changes in market conditions. Growers grow vegetables for immediate marketing and their produce is subject to competition to decide the prices ebb and flow tray. Hence they cannot compromise the quality of the seeds they use for fear of rejection of their produce. They buy the best seeds, mainly hybrids, and frequently try new products to remain successful.

The seed companies in turn get instant response and success if they develop new promising hybrids. Price of seeds is a more critical factor in marginal vegetable areas, where capital and spending input regimes are low, but less important where high yields can be obtained and the grower’s produce can be sold profitably . Food safety legislation in the European Union and in the United States is introducing increasingly stricter standards. It is expected that the assurance of ‘‘safe’’ vegetable products will become increasingly important not only in these countries but all over the world. Human and environmental health risks of inapropriate vegetable production practices arise mainly from the following: i) in-apropriate handling of pesticides by growers; ii) crop selection or location without due regard to the environment polution in the air, soil or water; iii) aplication of unsorted or insuficiently treated solid and liquid organic wastes to vulnerable crops; and iv) poor and unsanitary handling during marketing and distribution .