The whole province deploys 9,500 hectares of dragon fruit meeting VietGAP standards

In order to continue improving the quality of Binh Thuan dragon fruit products, ensuring food safety, serving domestic consumption and export requirements, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Hong Hai has just issued a decision approving the Program for producing dragon fruit according to VietGAP standards in 2023 in the province.

Accordingly, in 2023, the whole province will have 9,500 hectares of dragon fruit meeting VietGAP standards, deployed in cooperatives, dragon fruit growing groups; enterprises, cooperatives, farms, households, and individuals growing dragon fruit. Specifically, the area allocated for VietGAP certification by localities includes: Ham Thuan Nam with an area of VietGAP certification by the end of 2023 of 7,713 hectares; Ham Thuan Bac 976.827 hectares; Bac Binh 409.384 hectares; Phan Thiet 96.5 hectares; La Gi 142.5 hectares; Ham Tan 113.5 hectares; Tuy Phong 116.5 hectares (including newly certified, re-certified and valid areas). Regarding the implementation content, based on the allocated area, mobilize and guide farmers to organize and build cooperatives and cooperatives to produce dragon fruit according to VietGAP standards with reasonable scale to facilitate management, implementation of production activities and linking product consumption later.

*Harvesting VietGAP dragon fruit in Ham Thuan Bac.*

For dragon fruit areas with valid VietGAP certification, increase regular and unscheduled assessments to maintain production according to VietGAP. Require certified establishments to strictly conduct internal inspections (at least once a year) and keep records during the implementation process. Focus on providing guidance to help organizations and individuals produce in accordance with VietGAP requirements and carry out re-certification registration procedures within the prescribed time. For dragon fruit areas registered for new certification and re-certification of VietGAP in 2023, it is necessary to survey, analyze and evaluate the indicators of soil and water samples in the production area.

According to the Provincial People's Committee, the total cost of implementing the VietGAP dragon fruit production program in 2023 in the province is 1.2 billion VND. The beneficiaries are cooperatives and associated groups and organizations. Individual households, farms, and businesses are not supported with the cost of issuing certificates.

The Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to preside over and coordinate with relevant localities and departments to re-certify and certify new dragon fruit production areas according to VietGAP standards to reach 9,500 hectares in 2023. In particular, the People's Committees of localities must identify the VietGAP dragon fruit production program as an important political task of local authorities, and must persevere with high determination to regularly direct the improvement of the quality of certification consultancy in production to maintain the target of 9,500 hectares of dragon fruit produced according to VietGAP standards...

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