From the story of Vietnamese dragon fruit being returned by Thailand

Many issues related to the impersonation of farming area codes, the quality of Vietnam’s agricultural exports… were raised at the third quarterly press conference held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on October 6.

Worried that there is no export gate

The Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Thailand has issued regulations governing monitoring of pesticide residues (plant protection) for agricultural imports. Fresh produce takes effect from August 1, 2020.

Accordingly, fresh food imported into Thailand will be classified into three groups based on the level of risk. Specifically, the very high risk group, the high risk group and the low risk group.

Very high risk group is understood as the parties that do not comply with the Thai regulations regarding pesticide residues. Nearly 30 items including oranges, dragon fruits, pears, lychees, apples, grapes, tangerines and fresh dates from 182 Chinese companies are on this list.

For Vietnamese agricultural products, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said: After Thailand issued a new standard on pesticide residues on imported agricultural products, a few orders Our country’s dragon fruit exports to Thailand have been returned. The reason is violation of regulations on pesticide residues.

“Businesses report that before exporting to Thailand, they usually export goods of equivalent quality when exporting to China. However, with the new regulations, Vietnamese vegetables and fruits will have to raise their production standards even more. If we keep growing in the free way, spraying with the wrong dosage will not have an export gate ”- Mr. Nguyen acknowledged.

Before this information, Mr. Nguyen Minh Phuong, Director of Safari One Member Limited Company specializing in dragon fruit export to the Chinese market, worried that if China also applies the same standards as Thailand, many agricultural products of our country. will stand.

Remember a few months ago, two businesses in Dong Thap were without reason to be banned from exporting mangoes to China. The reason is that the codes of the growing area, the packing establishment number of these two units have been impersonated by other enterprises to export many times with consignments violating the phytosanitary regulations and many other reasons.

“It is clear that with the current deep integration into the world economy, if Vietnamese agricultural products do not improve their quality and are managed methodically, it is difficult to avoid these unfortunate cases” – said the company leader.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that it is promoting the management of digital agricultural products to prevent impersonation and ensure food safety. In the photo: American experts check Vietnamese fruits before exporting. Photo: QUANG HUY

Digitize the planting area code to avoid impersonation

Answer your question Law of Ho Chi Minh City Regarding the situation of returned orders for dragon fruit exports to Thailand and solutions to no longer repeating the situation of impersonating the planting area code, Mr. Nguyen Quy Duong, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, said: have coordinated with the Agro-forestry and Fishery Quality Control Department, the food safety agency of the Ministry of Health to survey and review both domestic and export agricultural products.

“Not only exported to Thailand but just recently exported to Cambodia, when they use a quick test, some shipments are also exceeding the allowed residue” – Mr. Duong informed.

However, the representative of the Department of Plant Protection said that in the past three years, the total number of infringing consignments was very low compared to the total output of agricultural products that Vietnam exported. After detecting the infringing consignments, the plant protection agency traced to the locality where the product was located and the enterprise was responsible for this product.

“When we tracked it down, we discovered a situation where there were companies with area codes but the export quantity was not enough, so we bought some goods from outside. We have reorganized and most of the businesses then comply, do not repeat “- Mr. Duong said.

Deputy Director of Plant Protection Department Nguyen Quy Duong also said that this unit offers a solution to digitize the number of the planting area, the number of the packing establishment to the border gate to check those codes when doing customs clearance. For example, a mango, the code must show how many tons of production, if exporting over that amount, it will be detected and processed.

The leader of the Plant Protection Department added that since 2019, this unit has issued a warning three times that the Chinese market is gradually raising food safety and hygiene standards. Other markets such as the European market, in addition to the tariff reduction factor, they also need to pay attention to their gradual improvement of technical barriers.

“We are coordinating with all localities to organize production association, management from input materials, pesticides, fertilizers … Previously we implemented this model with coffee trees. and showed very good efficiency, immediately managed inputs, pesticides, food safety issues ”- Mr. Duong informed.