Food Provisioning and Wholesale Agricultural Commodity Chains in Northern Vietnam

Recent research examining the functioning of agricultural wholesale markets in the Global South tends to aim at understanding how these connect commodity chains between Global South suppliers and Global North consumers (often via large chain supermarkets), identifying groups of winners and losers en route. Often, the everyday lived experiences of individual actors along these chains, and how they maintain a livelihood within these vast networks, is omitted in favor of macro-level interpretations. Focusing on agricultural food provisioning in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city, we analyze the complex negotiations among numerous actors operating both local commodity chains as well as regional South-South networks through the city's Cho Long Bien wholesale market. These negotiations and trade relations rely on intricate networks, ties, and social capital. In present day socialist Vietnam, long-standing agricultural commodity chain actors are not necessarily losing out to new players such as supermarkets as one might expect, nor is their trade declining due to recent food safety concerns. Instead, these actors constantly renegotiate their positions along dynamic networks to maintain viable livelihoods.