Businesses need to pay special attention to pesticide residues when exporting rice to the EU.

DNVN - According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the European Union (EU), to export high-value rice to the EU market, businesses need to pay special attention to rice quality management, especially pesticide residues.

According to the commitment from the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), the EU gives Vietnam a quota of 80,000 tons of rice per year, including: 30,000 tons of regular white rice, 20,000 tons of unmilled rice and 30,000 tons of fragrant rice (9 varieties: Jasmine 85, ST 5, ST 20, Nang Hoa 9, VD 20, RVT, OM 4900, OM 5451, Tai Nguyen Cho Dao). In addition, the EU completely liberalizes broken rice.

These commitments will enable Vietnam to export an estimated 100,000 tons to the EU each year. For rice products, the EU will reduce the tax rate to 0% after 3-5 years.

Up to now, Vietnamese rice and rice products have basically enjoyed a 0% tax rate on the amount of rice within the quota. This has opened up opportunities for Vietnamese rice to compete with other countries when exporting to the EU.

Vietnamese rice has the opportunity to promote exports to the EU market.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the EU, the price of Vietnamese rice exported to the Belgian market and EU countries is higher than the average of other countries because the types of rice exported to this market are mainly high-value fragrant rice such as ST25, ST24. Some rice products processed from pho rice, vermicelli, rice paper and Vietnamese rice have successfully penetrated the modern distribution system of the EU in Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Northern Europe.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that Vietnam and the EU are currently discussing the list of fragrant rice imported into the EU under the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) with more preferential tax rates. Therefore, in addition to the EVFTA tax rate, Vietnamese rice will compete for the common tariff quota compared to other countries.

To export high-value rice to this market, the Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the EU noted that businesses need to pay special attention to rice quality management, especially pesticide residues.

The threshold for pesticide residues in rice is below 0.01 mg/kg and importers and EU regulators will regularly check food safety quality. Lessons learned in 2021, when marketing ST25 rice, Belgian businesses had to recall it because the pesticide residue was 0.017 mg/kg.

On the other hand, currently fragrant rice varieties ST 24, 25 are being marketed in Belgium and the EU, but this rice variety has not enjoyed preferential treatment under the EVFTA framework, so it has to compete for common tariff quotas with other countries. Vietnam needs to speed up renegotiations and expand the list of rice varieties exported to the EU.

Assessing the quality of Vietnam's exported rice, the Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that although Vietnam is among the top countries in terms of rice export output, the Vietnamese rice brand is still "bland". These are shortcomings that need to be resolved to increase export value and create sustainable output for Vietnam's agricultural products.

Vietnamese rice exporting enterprises need to pay more attention to building a brand with a systematic promotion strategy for the brand and high-quality rice varieties of Vietnam. In particular, they must ensure quality, meet quarantine standards, ensure on-time delivery as well as the signed contract agreement.

Ha Anh

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