In response to the warning about Vietnamese food exports to the EU in early 2025, the Deputy Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to resolve this issue.
Dragon fruit garden in Vietnam - Photo: C. TUE
The Government Office has just issued a document conveying the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha regarding the press information reflecting that "Vietnam's food exports have been warned by the European Union (EU).
Regarding this issue, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha assigned the Ministers of Agriculture and Rural Development and Industry and Trade, according to their assigned functions, tasks and authorities, to urgently direct and drastically and effectively implement measures to enhance information, dissemination and guidance for production and trading establishments of agricultural products and exported food to regularly update and fully comply with regulations on hygiene, food safety and disease safety of export markets.
At the same time, strengthen inspection and supervision of raw material areas, preliminary processing, processing and packaging facilities to ensure compliance with regulations on epidemiological hygiene measures and animal and plant quarantine to avoid food safety warnings, affecting the reputation and brand of Vietnamese agricultural products and food in the international market.
On February 21, Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam - Deputy Director of the Office of Notification and National Enquiry Point on Epidemiology and Animal and Plant Quarantine of Vietnam (SPS) - said that implementing the direction of the Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam assigned the Vietnam SPS Office held a national conference to urgently deploy measures to strengthen compliance with this food safety regulation of the EU market on the morning of February 24.
Previously, Tuoi Tre Online reported that in the first month of 2025, the EU sent 12 warnings to Vietnam's agricultural and food exports (cashew nuts, processed shrimp, soft drinks, dried basil seeds, apple snail meat, etc.) due to violations of regulations, leading to product recalls by the EU.
According to the Vietnam SPS Office, the reason the EU warned of recall is because the business has not registered to circulate products containing ingredients from "new foods" in the EU market.
Second, the business declared the ingredients in the product inconsistently with the records, especially ingredients that can easily cause allergies to consumers.
Third, the product contains illegal food additives or exceeds the prescribed level. For example, tuna steak products were found to contain food additive E 300 - ascorbic acid residue of 513mg/kg, while the maximum allowable residue is 300mg/kg.
Fourth, enterprises do not declare or conduct veterinary quarantine at the border gate for "mixed products" containing animal ingredients.
Along with rice, dragon fruit is also warned due to pesticide residue exceeding the permissible threshold.
Responding to Tuoi Tre Online , Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam assessed these violations and warnings as "serious", because they not only affect businesses but also affect the reputation and brand of Vietnamese agricultural products and food in the international market.
The Vietnam SPS Office also said that in 2024, Vietnam received 114 warnings from the EU, double that of 2023.
Agricultural products such as durian, dragon fruit, chili, and okra from Vietnam are being inspected by the EU at a frequency of 20% to 50%, of which dragon fruit, okra, and chili must have additional pesticide residue testing certificates.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thuc-pham-xuat-khau-sang-eu-bi-canh-bao-pho-thu-tuong-ra-chi-dao-2025022116181131.htm
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