The sharp increase in the area of pepper along with the unscientific cultivation, excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides by a part of Vietnam’s pepper farmers are bringing anxiety to the pepper industry, because The market of many importing countries is warning about the quality of Vietnamese pepper and may stop importing if the problem of pesticide residues on Vietnamese pepper is not improved.
Overview of the Conference on December 9, 2015 in Ho Chi Minh City.
With the spirit of the same determination to solve the problem soon, the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) together with the European Spices Association (ESA), Trade Promotion Department – Ministry of Industry and Trade (VietTrade) had a meeting to discuss in Bonn. , Germany in October 2015, developing an action plan.
The first kick-off activity was the Seminar held on December 9, 2015 in Ho Chi Minh City on the issue of “Management of quality and residues of pesticides for exported Vietnamese pepper”.
It can be said that the Pepper Symposium has never had the full presence of all the components that determine the development of the Pepper industry. In addition to the leaders from the European, American and Canadian Spice Associations, who represent thousands of pepper and spice importers, annually importing about 50% of pepper from Vietnam, there are more than 100 enterprises. exporters (including Vietnamese and FDI enterprises), farmers who are producing and trading pepper, and representatives of State and local management agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, especially 3 The state management agencies directly related to the control of pesticide residues on pepper are the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Quality Management (NAFIQUAD), the Department of Plant Protection (PPD) and the Department of Crop Production (PCD) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. .
In the spirit of frank dialogue, the US, EU and Canadian importers and some import-export companies have pointed out the serious characteristics with the current quality of Vietnamese pepper and the current regulations that if not soon overcome. The recovery will certainly significantly reduce the output of pepper exported to these markets if Vietnam does not change the production organization, the way of managing materials (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) for pepper. .
– EU markets that require pepper imported into the EU must comply with the following regulations:
(1) With regard to pesticides (Pesticides): The maximum allowable residue levels are subject to Regulation (EC) No 396/2005, Regulation (EC) No 178/2006, Annex 1; Regulation (EC) No 149/2008 , Annexes 2, 3 and 4.
(The database of pesticides regulated by the European Commission can be found on the Internet: http://ec.europa.eu/sanco_pesticides/public/index.cfm)
(2) With contaminants (Contaminants): Comply with Regulation (EC) No. 1881/2006, in which, with Pepper and spices, special attention should be paid to substances such as: Aflatoxin, Ochratoxin A (OTA), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), Anthraquinone(AQ), Chlorates, Perchlorates and Pyrrolicidinealcaloids (PA);
(3) With the group of biocides (Biocide): The European Commission is considering to harmonize the regulations for the two groups of substances above.
It is also necessary to refer to Regulations (EC) No 882/2004 and Regulation (EC) 669/2009 on the extent of increased import control for foods of non-animal origin.
The workshop proposed some urgent solutions to the problem of pesticide residues on pepper as follows:
– The pesticide management agency must definitely remove some pesticides with chemical components that are not allowed by the pepper importing countries, especially active ingredients such as Carbendazim, Cypermethrin, Metalaxyl…. In the immediate future, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development can do immediately to remove these substances from pepper, which is to put pepper into a ready-to-eat food category so that it can be applied as Tea, Vegetables in Circular 34/205/TT-BNNPTNT. However, at the same time, the Plant Protection Department must immediately include in the list of bio-based pesticides that can be replaced because the epidemic situation on pepper is still increasing;
-NLS-TS Quality Management Department (NAFAQUAD) will regularly update information on the situation of pesticide residues on pepper imported to the EU, US, and Canadian markets (European, American and Canadian Spice Associations have been commit to sharing information regularly) to give early warning because the current laboratories of NAFIQUAD can completely identify the groups of substances with the highest frequency on Vietnamese pepper such as Carbendazim, Cypemethrin etc…
– The Department of Crop Production will soon complete the GAP process for pepper in the first quarter of 2016 in the spirit that the process is not too complicated, focusing only on regulations on organic farming and the use of pesticides. science to ensure food hygiene and safety;
-Especially strengthen training, improve the level of farmers in cultivation and post-harvest preservation to ensure clean pepper. In this regard, in addition to promoting agricultural extension training, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has issued Circular 51 providing a commitment with 10 criteria regulating safe production, printed on one side of the Commitment, and asked the farmer household to sign it. . With this approach, at least 10 million farmers across the country (including pepper farmers) will be able to quickly update their knowledge on safe and hygienic production.
-In the long term, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development needs to develop production management processes from farmers, planning raw material areas so that they can proceed to certification of production areas on that basis, so that they can build a dossier of instructions for export. origin, traceability, branding, one of the things that the importers attending the seminar always emphasized in the presented reports.
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