Faced with hundreds of tons of cinnamon essential oil being left in stock due to export regulations, on April 2, the Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association (VPSA) sent an official dispatch to the Government Office requesting a solution.
The official dispatch clearly states that businesses exporting cinnamon essential oil in Lao Cai and Yen Bai are currently facing difficulties in exporting when all essential oils must apply regulations on medicinal trading. This is not suitable for production conditions, products and consumer markets as well as the small-scale processing capacity of Vietnam’s cinnamon essential oil processing industry today. Therefore, it generates a lot of costs, requiring additional conditional business licenses while this is a value-added product, helping to exploit and maximize 100% of the value of cinnamon trees.
Cinnamon essential oil products require processing technology and create added value for the product. They are salvaged products of cinnamon trees and pruned branches and leaves (production rate is 150 tons of leaves and branches for 1 tons of essential oils) and are not used as medicine but are only exported as raw materials for food and beverages according to import market requirements.
On March 4, 2021, the Ministry of Health issued Circular No. 03/2021/TT-BYT “On abolishing part of the regulations in Appendix 1 issued with Circular No. 48/2018/TT-BYT , medicinal extracts, medicinal essential oils, traditional medicines, imported and exported medicinal drugs are determined with commodity codes according to the list of Vietnamese exported and imported goods”, accordingly, Some categories of goods have been abolished such as: oranges, ginger, lemons, cinnamon, and cinnamon bark. In case the exported or imported goods specified in the Appendix issued with Circular 03/2021 are used for the purpose of making medicine and medicinal ingredients, the provisions of legal documents shall be followed. about medicine.
On September 25, 2023, the Minister of Health issued Circular No. 17/2023/TT-BYT amending, supplementing and abolishing a number of legal documents on food safety.
Accordingly, a number of articles were amended in Circular No. 24/2019/TT-BYT dated August 30, 2019 regulating the management and use of food additives; Clause 4, Article 5, Circular No. 24/2019 stipulates: Flavorings used in food include flavorings that have been evaluated and determined by JECFA to be safe at expected intakes or acceptable daily intakes. (ADI). These flavors must meet the respective technical requirements for identity and purity; comply with the provisions of National Standard TCVN 6417:2010 Instructions for use of flavorings and specific regulations in this Circular.
Article 4 of Circular No. 17/2023 stipulates: “4. Flavorings used in food include flavorings belonging to one of the following categories: a) Flavorings that have been evaluated by JECFA and determined to be safe at expected intakes or acceptable daily intakes ( ADI); b) Flavors Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) issued by the American Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA); c) Flavorings for use in foods of the European Union issued by the Parliament and Council of the European Union.”.
Due to the current regulation and management of cinnamon essential oil according to the above regulations, it has caused difficulties for businesses wanting to export this product. In the raw material area, there is currently about 100 tons of inventory and it is estimated that by the end of the spring cinnamon crop in March-April 2024, there will be about 400 tons more essential oils. Market value is about 400 million VND/ton.
In 2023, cinnamon exports will reach 89.3 thousand tons, with a turnover of 261 million USD.
According to Ms. Hoang Thi Lien, President of VPSA, because essential oils in general and cinnamon essential oils in particular are dual-use products, currently used for huge food needs in the world. In the future, other Vietnamese spice crops will also have the ability to develop deep processing of essential oil products, so the Association believes that management needs to create conditions to support maximum export, especially the export of products. Added value and circular agriculture, supporting carbon emission reduction, are the livelihoods of highland ethnic people.
Previously, on February 1, VPSA also sent a document to the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Trade and the General Department of Customs, and proposed that the Ministry of Health consider creating conditions for cinnamon essential oil to be used. Exported according to enterprise declaration is a group of normal exported food products, the purpose of use is not as raw materials for drugs or medicinal materials.
In case businesses export products that are natural cinnamon essential oil as raw materials for food and beverages, businesses must comply with the provisions of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP detailing the implementation implementing a number of articles of the Food Safety Law. Enterprises must be responsible before the law for the declared content and compliance with the provisions of legal documents on exported goods.
On April 3, talking to Dan Viet, Ms. Hoang Thi Lien, President of VPSA, said that cinnamon is one of the key export products of Vietnam’s spice industry, accounting for 21.4% of the export market share after processing. pepper. In 2023, cinnamon exports will reach 89,300 tons, with a turnover of 261 million USD, including a part of the export contribution of cinnamon essential oil. Cinnamon is currently also a hunger eradication and poverty reduction crop for ethnic minorities in the Northern mountainous region because cinnamon has a harvesting cycle of 7-25 years, and the product can be preserved for a long time.
“The blockage of exporting cinnamon essential oil by businesses will make the lives of farmers even more difficult when the output of the product is not consumed, so reclaimed products from cinnamon trees cannot be purchased for Processing. It must be added that importers currently do not require the quality of essential oil products according to medicinal standards but only require quality according to food and beverage product groups. Currently, the quality of Vietnam’s cinnamon essential oil is exploited from salvaged products of the cinnamon tree, so the quality does not meet the requirements of the world market for deep processing as medicinal herbs,” Ms. Lien said.
According to danviet.vn
