Businesses should note when exporting agricultural products to the EU market.

The Vietnam National Information and Enquiry Point for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Animal and Plant Quarantine (SPS Vietnam) noted that the agricultural and food import market is constantly changing regulations on food safety and animal and plant quarantine with the goal of protecting consumer health and animal and plant health.

This requires Vietnam to study and strictly comply with international rules, especially with markets that have strict regulations on pesticide residues and food safety and hygiene such as the European Union (EU).

The EU has sent 16 warnings against Vietnam's agricultural and food products exports.

In the first two months of this year alone, the EU has issued 16 warnings against Vietnamese agricultural and food exports, including dragon fruit, cashew nuts, processed shrimp, soft drinks, dried basil seeds, and apple snail meat. The reasons were violations of EU regulations, leading to product recalls and destruction.

According to Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of SPS, businesses are currently confused when exporting to the EU "new foods" and "mixed products". EU regulations on quality standards and food safety are constantly changing, some regulations have been amended and supplemented more than 100 times. Therefore, if businesses do not quickly adapt and adjust in time, their agricultural export activities can easily be affected.

“In the first two months of the year, warnings about pesticide and veterinary drug residues on exported products tended to decrease to only 31.3%, but the EU increased warnings about food additives and novel foods. Accordingly, this rate increased by 12.5% ​​for food additives and novel foods, up to 25% of the 16 EU warnings. Although the number of 16 warnings is not statistically significant, this is one of the signs that businesses need to pay attention to so that they can grasp and control these EU regulations well,” Mr. Nam noted.