Vietnamese mangoes found to contain pesticide residues
Recently, in January 2024, the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) conducted random inspections of imported mango products being sold in the Korean market, including mango products originating from Vietnam and the Philippines with pesticide residues of 0.08 mg/g and 0.05 mg/g, respectively, exceeding the PLS system's prescribed level (0.01 mg/g).
 |
| Exporting agricultural products to Korea needs to pay attention to new regulations (illustrative photo) |
Vietnamese mango products packaged in 5kg bags were found to contain residues of Permethrin - an active ingredient used to kill stink bugs, leaf-eating worms, flower borers, fruit borers...
MFDS has recalled Vietnamese mango products exported to the Korean market by CT Agricultural Products Production and Processing Company Limited and recommended that consumers who purchased Vietnamese mango export products return them to the place of sale. After the recall announcement on January 22, no additional batches of Vietnamese mango products exceeding the permitted standards were detected.
According to statistics from Korean Customs, every year Korea imports about 25 thousand tons of mangoes with a value of about 110 million USD, mainly imported from Peru and Thailand.
Mango is a popular tropical fruit product in the Korean market, along with bananas and pineapples, so the demand for consumption is very large. Vietnam's tropical fruit products still have a lot of room in the Korean market.
Although the export turnover of Vietnamese mangoes to Korea has increased from 7.9 million USD (2022) to 9.9 million USD (2023), Vietnamese mango products have not paid attention to pesticide residues, leading to regrettable violations of technical standards for products imported into the Korean market.
“It is likely that Vietnamese mangoes exceed the permitted threshold because they are grown in areas that have not been cleaned of pesticides and are scattered, making it difficult to control the entire process of planting, harvesting and treating moisture. Therefore, Vietnamese authorities need to further promote information dissemination and early warning for Vietnamese mango exporting enterprises ,” experts said.
Previously, in 2023, frozen chili products from Vietnam Nam being sold in the Korean market were also recalled by MFDS due to the detection of PLS residue exceeding the permissible threshold when randomly checking frozen chili products imported from Vietnam.
The recalled quantity is 24 tons of frozen red peppers produced in 2022, packaged in 20kg, 1kg and 500g bags imported by a Korean trading company from a Vietnamese company.
For 20kg and 500g packaged chili, the residue of tricyclazole is 0.04mg/kg and for 1kg packaged chili, the residue level is 0.02mg/kg, higher than the permitted level of less than 0.01mg/kg. Tricyclazole is a familiar active ingredient in the treatment of fungal diseases, especially for rice plants.
According to the inspection plan for agricultural products imported into Korea by MFDS, frozen chili products from Vietnam are subject to inspection from March 31, 2023 to March 30, 2024 for 7 types of pesticide residues: Diniconazole, Tolfenpyrad, Tricyclazole, Permethrin, Dimethoate, Isoprothiolein, Methominostrobin.
If such incidents are not promptly prevented, they will negatively affect the image of Vietnamese agricultural products. Therefore, the Vietnam Trade Office in Korea recommends that agricultural processing and exporting enterprises in general strictly comply with Korean regulations on pesticide residue levels when exporting agricultural products to this market.
Market adds new barriers
Also in January 2024, MFDS issued a notice on guidance on import hygiene assessment of animal products.
Pursuant to the “Special Act on Imported Food Safety Control” and the “Decree for Implementing the Special Act on Imported Food Safety Control” amended from December 12, 2023, animal products regulated by the MFDS, as defined by the Korean food code, will be subject to the MFDS Import Sanitation Assessment (ISA) starting from June 14, 2024, including: Products containing processed meat: products manufactured/processed using meat as the main ingredient, excluding livestock products; Products containing processed eggs: products manufactured/processed using eggs as the main ingredient, excluding livestock products; Other meat and egg products: will be defined in the Enforcement Notice of the Act.
According to the MFDS announcement in September 2023, all countries that are not allowed to import raw meat and eggs into Korea will have to apply for ISA by June 14, 2025.
For Vietnam, although chicken meat and edible eggs (chicken, duck, quail) are not allowed to be imported, processed meat products using chicken as raw material and processed egg products from Vietnam have been allowed to be imported into Korea from 2016-2023, after the "Special Act on Imported Food Safety Control" was enacted.
In order to maintain the export of processed meat products using chicken as raw material and processed egg products from Vietnam to Korea, the import sanitation assessment (ISA) for these animal products must be completed by June 14, 2025 to be included in the list of countries permitted to import animal products.
Notes for Vietnamese businesses
The trade cooperation between Vietnam and Korea has many opportunities to develop further when both countries participate in and benefit from bilateral and multilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Moreover, the import-export structure of the two countries is clearly complementary and has little direct competition.
The Korean market is currently trending towards simple food replacing family meals with instant, easy-to-cook, easy-to-eat products that are growing rapidly in Korea, especially in the past 5 years. Along with that is the rise of products that are good for health and increase resistance such as organic products and foods for the elderly.
In addition, there is a trend of consuming meat substitutes, protecting the environment with packaging that limits the use of plastic materials, ESG (environmental, social, corporate governance) governance models. And regulations on food hygiene and safety, regulations, and quarantine procedures.
In order for export products to be consumed well in Korea, in addition to quality and flavor, the product also needs supporting factors such as stability in production, safety in processing and circulation, and credibility in commitment. With these factors, businesses will have an advantage in negotiating and maintaining long-term partners.
Therefore, the Vietnam Trade Office in Korea recommends that localities, associations and businesses need to spend time researching and analyzing the Korean market to clearly identify which consumer segment the product is targeting, the product needs to meet technical standards and especially pesticide residues (PLS system) in the Korean market.
In 2023, Vietnam's total import-export turnover with South Korea reached 76 billion USD, down 12.2% over the same period in 2022. Of which, Vietnam's export turnover to South Korea reached 23.5 billion USD; Vietnam's import turnover from South Korea reached 52.5 billion USD. Vietnam's exports to Korea are as follows: Processing and manufacturing group (19.4 billion USD, down nearly 2%); agricultural and aquatic products group (1.3 billion USD, down 8.3%); fuel and mineral group (249.3 million USD, up 28.5%); construction materials group (over 1 billion USD, down nearly 5%). In the opposite direction, Vietnam imported from Korea including: Processing and manufacturing group (45.4 billion USD, down 16.2%); agricultural and aquatic products group (414.6 million USD, down 14.3%); fuel and mineral group (3.5 billion USD, down 6.5%); construction materials group (2.1 billion USD, down 11.3%). |
Source
Comment (0)