Checking and monitoring growing area codes - Efforts to control agricultural product quality

SGGP 09/26/2023 12:25 PM

The Mekong Delta provinces are currently leading the country in terms of growing area codes (MSVT) with 25 exported fruit products, and are also leading in terms of coded packaging facilities. However, many challenges are being posed to the process of maintaining operations to meet the requirements of importing countries.

Many codes are issued, but… not a few are revoked!

According to Mr. Le Van Thiet, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the country currently has 6,883 export MSVTs granted for 25 products such as: dragon fruit, longan, lychee, mango, rambutan, star apple, lemon, grapefruit, mangosteen... to 11 markets (China, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Europe, Thailand...). Of which, the Mekong Delta has the largest number of MSVTs in the country (3,975 - accounting for 57%) in operation, and the province with the largest number of growing areas is Dong Thap with 2,469 MSVTs.

Mr. Tran Quang Giau, Head of the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection of Kien Giang province, said: Currently, due to the requirements of the world market, the export of agricultural products in the province will not be possible if the enterprises, organizations and individuals involved do not comply with the regulations in the basic standards on the process of establishing and supervising growing areas and the process of establishing and supervising packaging facilities of the Plant Protection Department. Therefore, MSVT is the key to open the door for Vietnamese agricultural products to be exported to foreign markets.

Many types of fruit in the Mekong Delta that are given growing area codes need to have their quality control strengthened for sustainable export. Photo: VINH TUONG

Along with MSVT, the Mekong Delta leads the country with 626 operating packaging facility codes, accounting for 39.4% of the country. Tien Giang is the province that has been granted the most export packaging facility codes (850 facilities). However, through regular monitoring, Tien Giang province has so far revoked 535 packaging facility codes that do not meet the requirements of importing countries.

Since 2021, the Plant Protection Department has received 4 notices from China about shipments that do not comply with plant quarantine for export goods such as bananas, jackfruit, dragon fruit, durian, rambutan, etc., or plant quarantine certificates not issued by Vietnam's plant quarantine agency. Of which, Tien Giang is the province with the highest number of violations with 267 violations of growing areas and packaging facilities (accounting for 35.6%).

Urgent "reinforcement" of MSVT

In the Mekong Delta, Hau Giang has a high monitoring rate, over 80% for growing areas and 94.7% for packaging facilities. In contrast, provinces with a large number of MSVTs issued such as Dong Thap (2,477 MSVTs) and Long An (288 MSVTs) but the monitoring rates are only 23% and 0.3% respectively, too low compared to the regulations requiring annual monitoring. According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tien Giang province, in order to issue and manage MSVTs and packaging facility codes more effectively in the coming time, the department will continue to focus on guiding people to organize production to ensure high efficiency; at the same time, inspect, monitor and recall or destroy growing areas and packaging facilities that do not meet the requirements.

In Long An, there are 109 dragon fruit facilities granted packing facility codes.

Mr. Le Van Thiet, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, commented: Although the supervision of MSVT and export packaging facility codes in the provinces has received more attention recently, there have not been many clear changes. Most provinces are only interested in guiding the establishment and issuance of new ones, but have not focused resources on supervising MSVT and packaging facility codes after they have been approved. This is the main reason why many shipments of violating goods have to receive warnings from the plant quarantine agencies of importing countries, or are forced to "turn around" right at Vietnam's border gates.

Mr. Tran Cong Danh, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kien Giang province, said that the current difficulty is that there are still some farmers who do not understand the meaning and importance of MSVT issuance. Some people are still confused in implementing the MSVT registration process. Information, knowledge, regulations on MSVT issuance, packaging facilities... for businesses, organizations and individuals who need to export agricultural products have not been widely informed and disseminated in the past.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the past 10 years (2013-2022), the Mekong Delta has greatly expanded the area of ​​fruit trees. By the end of 2022, the total area of ​​fruit trees in the whole region will be over 400,000 hectares.

The expansion of the fruit export market is impressive, but maintaining quality and complying with quarantine procedures through safe production measures is urgent. Accordingly, fruit growing areas need to strictly comply with the production processes and requirements of importing countries, aiming at good agricultural practices (VietGAP), paying special attention to fully recording cultivation diaries; regularly monitoring and supervising pests and diseases and thoroughly handling pests, especially pests that are of concern to importing countries. Packing facilities need to develop and strictly implement packaging processes according to the one-way principle and traceability; invest in equipment to implement technical measures to meet the regulations of importing countries. Enhance the competitiveness of growing areas and packing facilities through improving production and packaging processes, training high-quality human resources and improving management, technical, and food safety and hygiene capacity.

• Mr. HOANG TRUNG, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development:

Absolutely do not issue quarantine certificates for shipments that do not comply with regulations.

For shipments that have arrived at the border gate and are found to be in violation by the plant quarantine agency, it is recommended that localities must force them to return to the inland. Only when businesses find a solution will they be allowed to exploit and export again; even requiring a temporary suspension of exploitation and use of the MSVT or the packaging facility code. In addition, functional sectors and localities must strengthen guidance, supervision, and inspection of the issuance, management, and use of codes in localities. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen inspection, examination, and handling of violations; absolutely do not issue quarantine certificates to shipments that do not comply with quarantine regulations...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has requested localities to strengthen monitoring of codes after they are issued, review growing areas that have been issued codes, and not issue new codes to violators. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Justice are asking the Government for permission to develop two draft decrees, including a decree on guidelines for issuing codes for growing areas and agricultural product packaging facilities, and a decree regulating sanctions for violations of codes for growing areas, packaging, and exporting agricultural products.

PHUC VAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/kiem-tra-giam-sat-ma-so-vung-trong-no-luc-kiem-soat-chat-luong-nong-san-post707074.html