Many businesses have reported that pepper exports were returned by partners, mainly raw pepper accounting for 85%, the reason is that the quality of pepper is not guaranteed. Especially since the beginning of this year, the European market has begun to tighten regulations on the quality of imported pepper.
Therefore, increasing investment in pepper quality is proposed by both the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) and pepper farmers to make the path of pepper easier.
Lack of rigorous testing
Currently, not all pepper shipments are strictly inspected for quality before being exported. The reason for this phenomenon is because Vietnam is lacking an inspection agency and a center for farmers’ post-harvest pepper inspection.
Lam San Pepper Cooperative, Cam My – Dong Nai, said that although the cooperative instructs farmers in safe and clean pepper production methods, many farmers still cultivate according to old habits. Therefore, when traders buy pepper from farmers, they do not clearly divide the raw material consumption of each household. By the time the product is tested, a large amount of pepper is affected in terms of quality, while only a few households, even one, do not grow quality. Therefore, the lack of individual and strict inspection has greatly affected the pepper of many people.
Recently, many pepper exporters have been returned due to poor quality according to food safety and hygiene requirements, mainly from foreign markets. “grumpy” such as Europe and Japan. The main reason is that in the process of storage, many people have used carbendazim for preservation, and even mixed dirty pepper with clean pepper to sell to export businesses.
Not only that, although Vietnam has a quality control room for raw materials, it is not possible to verify all the criteria required by the importer. According to Mr. Do Ha Nam, President of VPA, equipment for testing chemical residues in pepper in Vietnam is very simple, only able to test 200 chemical indicators. Meanwhile, the world’s testing equipment can test 543 chemical indicators in raw materials. Therefore, businesses that want to export to difficult markets must send export samples to foreign countries 2 weeks in advance with very high inspection costs.
In order to export pepper to fastidious markets, Petrolimex Import-Export Joint Stock Company (Pitco) must hire foreign experts to test 80 pesticides that the leading domestic inspection units cannot. verifiable. However, this is quite costly for the company.
Need to test each product individually
Before this problem, in order for Vietnamese pepper to achieve high quality and easier to export, especially to create a firm belief in “difficult” markets, it must be solved from new roots to tops. must ensure from small, single quantities to large quantities, from many sources.
Therefore, Mr. Do Ha Nam proposed, the state and businesses need to invest in quality inspection centers in accordance with the criteria set by the importer. Compared with the cost of sending samples abroad, the investment in a quality inspection center required by the “fastidious” market is high, but it can serve many businesses at the same time and can can shorten the inspection time to finalize export goods.
Not only that, in each raw material area, there is a need for this inspection center. Only in this way can the raw materials of each individual pepper producer be clearly resolved before mixing together, avoiding time and money loss later. Moreover, although investing in a high-quality inspection system is expensive, when many exporters and farmers participate, good goods have a high price, the payback period will be shorter – Director of Lam San Cooperative shared. share more.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is ready to equip quality inspection centers and the Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Management Department will direct the implementation. Enterprises can send samples to these centers for goods inspection before exporting.
To invest in an international standard inspection center needs about 2 million USD. However, it is not only the investment that is done, but also the need to build the reputation of the centers. Importing enterprises often do not trust domestic accrediting units and always appoint foreign accreditors. Therefore, if building a domestic inspection center, it is necessary to build a reputation with foreign enterprises, which means that goods after being inspected here can be exported smoothly. Otherwise, the testing center that meets international standards will also be abandoned, causing waste. This is a big problem that needs to be supported by businesses and farmers in the pepper industry so that the pepper industry can develop more sustainably – emphasized Ms. Vice President cum General Secretary of VPA.
The Vietnam Pepper Association believes that pepper is the commodity with the best increase in export prices this year, so focusing on building quality inspection centers for export pepper is to improve the reputation and trade. Vietnamese pepper brand in the international market for sustainable development of the pepper industry.
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