Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said that China has agreed to consider opening the door for sweet potato and chili products to be allowed to be exported again.
Farmers in Hiep Tan hamlet, My Hiep Son commune (Kien Giang) sort sweet potatoes after harvesting. Illustration: Le Huy Hai/VNA
At the online conference to remove technical obstacles to promote agricultural product consumption in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on June 3, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said that, with the industry’s efforts to open up the export market of agricultural products, in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Chinese side has not been able to meet face-to-face to carry out the processes towards signing a single export protocol. For some agricultural products, China has agreed to consider opening the door for sweet potato and chili products to be allowed to export again.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, said that for sweet potato products, China has agreed to consider allowing Vietnam to temporarily export to the Chinese market on condition that the entire growing area is also temporarily exported to China. such as packing facilities are inspected and technical measures implemented to ensure they are not contaminated with 10 types of harmful organisms.
Today, the Plant Protection Department will contact the localities that grow sweet potatoes such as Vinh Long, Dak Lak, Dak Nong to deploy technical related contents to ensure the completion of the technical dossier. China.
In addition, for some provinces that currently do not have a package facility, while the packaging facility is a mandatory requirement of the Chinese side to export sweet potatoes, the Plant Protection Department will jointly establish these regulations. packing facility as soon as possible to respond to the request of the Chinese side.
For chili products exported to China, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong also said that from 2020, China has asked the Vietnamese side to actively suspend the export of this item. After a process of sending documents, the General Department of Customs of China agreed in the immediate future while waiting for them to do a pest risk analysis, then they agreed to let Vietnam temporarily export to China again.
Accordingly, Vietnam needs to meet one of their two conditions. The first is that chili peppers will have to be produced from areas free of fruit flies. The second is to be subjected to phytosanitary treatment before export. Just yesterday afternoon, the Plant Protection Department convened a meeting with relevant units. After reviewing the research, reviewing and finding that as a method that is produced from a pest-free, fruit fly-free area would be very difficult.
Therefore, the Plant Protection Department will conduct research and design technical specifications on phytosanitary treatment to send to China. The proposed treatment is with Methyl Bromide and this will take time to practice, because large amounts of material will be collected and repeated many times. The Department will try to complete soon a set of technical documents on phytosanitary treatment of chili products to send to China.
In addition, the Plant Protection Department has also completed a set of guidelines for provinces to establish pest-free planting areas. This is a more sustainable and long-term measure, Ms. Huong emphasized.
Also related to chili, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong informed that Malaysia, after 2 years of suspension, has also allowed Vietnam to export again. Malaysia’s condition is that chili peppers must also be produced from areas that are assigned codes by the Plant Protection Department and control the entire process from planting to packaging and exporting facilities. The Department has sent documents to localities and businesses to implement these contents.
“The Plant Protection Department has sent documents to the localities for nearly a month, but so far, the localities have not responded. Meanwhile, in the newspaper, there are many regions that need to consume chili peppers. , chili prices are low.”Ms. Huong expressed.
Ms. Huong suggested that the provinces will have to be very active in working with the Plant Protection Department to complete the technical documents. Because the current import markets all require specific management from each growing area, each packing facility. Therefore, the responsibility of the locality is very great in regularly monitoring and urging to ensure that the local products meet the requirements of the exporting countries.
