In 2024, our country's durian exports are estimated to earn 3.3 billion USD, an increase of more than 1 billion USD compared to 2023. However, this billion-dollar fruit of Vietnam has continuously received warnings related to food safety and plant quarantine issues.

The Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that it has just received a warning about a shipment of fresh fruit (durian and jackfruit) exported from Vietnam that did not comply with the requirements on plant quarantine and food safety of importing countries, especially the General Administration of Customs of China.

"If this situation is not well controlled, it will seriously affect the reputation and brand of Vietnamese agricultural products in the international market, with a high risk of losing market share," Mr. Nguyen Quang Hieu - Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, emphasized.

To strengthen the quality management of fresh fruit export shipments and ensure compliance with regulations on plant quarantine and food safety, avoiding the risk of being subject to control measures from importing countries, or even having the industry suspended, the Plant Protection Department requests the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of provinces and cities, regional Plant Quarantine Sub-Departments, relevant organizations and individuals to strengthen the management of growing area codes and export packaging facility codes.

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Vietnam's exported durian has received many warnings about food safety violations. Illustration photo: MK

In particular, continue to allocate resources to inspect and monitor growing areas and export packaging facilities. It is necessary to develop a plan and organize the implementation of a monitoring program on food safety and quality standards of exported fruits in growing areas and packaging facilities that have been granted codes.

Along with that, propaganda and training to widely disseminate the regulations of the importing country. Direct specialized agencies to announce the temporary suspension of all codes of growing areas and packaging facilities for cases of non-compliance with regulations on plant quarantine and food safety.

The agency also requires growing areas and packaging facilities to conduct pesticide and heavy metal residue testing and traceability as a mandatory condition for granting and maintaining growing area and packaging facility codes as required by the importing country.

In addition, in order to limit cases of forgery and fraud in the use of export codes, the Plant Protection Department recommends that the owner of the growing area code and the packaging facility, in case they do not directly export but allow other organizations and individuals to export products from the growing area and package at their packaging facility, must proactively send a written notice to the provincial specialized agency.

From January 20, regional Plant Quarantine Sub-Departments will use the consolidated reports of provincial-level professional agencies as the basis for carrying out quarantine procedures for fresh fruit shipments not directly exported by the owner of the growing area code and the packaging facility.

At the end of December 2024, the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association also had to issue an urgent notice, expressing strong opposition to the situation where some subjects took advantage of fraud and illegally copied the growing area codes and packing facility codes for exported durian.

The subjects used authorization contracts using codes with fake and homemade seals and signatures to defraud businesses and bypass authorities for profit and customs clearance to export to the Chinese market.

Recently, the EU has temporarily increased the frequency of border inspections of Vietnamese durian from 10% to 20%. The reason is due to non-compliance with regulations on pesticide residue levels. EU authorities have discovered many high levels of pesticide residues on durian such as: Carbendazim, Fipronil, Azoxystrobin, Dimethomorph, Metalaxyl, Lambda-cyhalothrin, Acetamiprid.

Regarding the story of food safety and quality management by the agricultural sector's professional agencies, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan noted that each of our actions is not only to ensure that the food reaching consumers is safe, but also to contribute to bringing confidence to the people and the international market in the quality of Vietnamese agricultural products.

With every food product, from fresh vegetables, meat and fish to processed products, we not only check the quality but also put all our heart into every step.

“With all our heart, we wish to bring every quality, safe Vietnamese agricultural product to every family in the country and to the world . Not only to protect health, but also to make Vietnamese agricultural products known, loved and trusted globally," said the Minister. He believes that safety is the foundation of sustainable development. And this sustainability is not only beneficial for consumers, but also for those who produce, process and bring products to the world.

With the strong development of technology, from AI, IoT, to Big Data, agricultural authorities have the opportunity to improve the efficiency of quality control, helping food safety protection to be carried out more accurately, quickly and effectively.

Urgent warning about fraudulent activities in exporting durian to China. The code of growing area and packing facility has become a “passport” for Vietnamese durian to be exported to the Chinese market. However, VINAFRUIT has just issued an urgent warning about fraudulent activities in exporting durian.