The demand for Vietnam’s farm produce is increasing in many markets, especially China. However, the markets have become choosier, requiring stricter phytosanitary measures.

The Plant Protection Department (PPD) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) reported that 6,883 growing area codes and 1,588 farm produce packaging unit codes have been granted. The codes are mostly used for major export items such as mango, dragon fruit, longan, rice and durian. These are the conditions for Vietnam to export farm produce to choosy markets such as China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

PPD reported that interest in Vietnam’s farm produce has been increasing in many markets. Vietnam is striving to maintain and expand existing markets, and improving the competitiveness of farm produce all over the globe.

However, state management agencies have warned that the non-compliance of the regulations on phytosanitary checks and farm produce hygiene has caused great damages to enterprises, affecting the reputation of Vietnamese agricultural products.

From 2021 to the first half of 2023, PPD received notices about the non-compliance of  regulations on plant quarantine from import countries. The produce with the most violations of regulations on food hygiene were jackfruit, bananas, mango, durian and dragon fruit which were infected with harmful organisms.

In the first seven months of 2023 alone, 370 consignments of farm produce were discovered violating the regulations related to growing area and packaging unit codes in 13 provinces in the central and southern regions.

PPD director Huynh Tan Dat said at the conference on strengthening the state management over growing area and packaging unit codes on August 24 that after monitoring campaigns, import countries highly appreciate Vietnam’s efforts to improve the situation, but also pointed out existing problems.

The checking of documents is not implemented well and officers discovered that the records of different growing areas were copied from each other. The inspection and assessment of farm produce remains negligent, while the quality of assessing growing areas and packaging facilities is not high. Also, growing areas don’t well control insects, thus putting a heavy burden on packaging units. The books and records are not upgraded regularly.

Meanwhile, experts have warned that import markets tend to set stricter requirements on imports. According to Hoang Khanh Duy, deputy head of the Management Board of the Dong Dang Border Gate Economic Zone, China has strengthened to examine the imports and it will reject all the consignments of imports if just pests are found in a product.

As of mid-August, 1.6 million tons of farm produce worth $1.2 billion were exported to China across the Lang Son provincial gate.

MARD Deputy Minister Hoang Trung warned that Vietnam may lose China and other markets if further violations are found.

Tam An