'Shocked' by the number of vegetable areas grown according to VietGAP standards in Vietnam

Survey data in 2023 and published in 2024 shows that the whole country has only more than 8,000 hectares of vegetables produced according to VietGAP standards out of a total of 1.15 million hectares of vegetables - accounting for less than 1%.

Vegetables are displayed for sale at a supermarket - Photo: C. TUE

This information was given by Mr. Nguyen Quy Duong, Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection ( Ministry of Agriculture and Environment ), at the seminar on Improving the quality and safety of domestic agricultural products, organized by Tien Phong newspaper on September 23.

Total area of ​​VietGAP and GlobalGAP vegetables is just over 16,000 hectares

According to Mr. Duong, the issue of ensuring the quality of vegetables and fruits is currently of concern not only to Vietnamese people but also to importing countries.

To have food safety, we must first focus on the primary production stage, but Vietnam's characteristic is that it has about 10 million farming households producing vegetables on an area of ​​about 1.15 million hectares and fruit trees on an area of ​​about 1.3 million hectares.

Mr. Duong said that the ministry has been interested in approaching GAP production since 2008, and the ministry has issued standards and regulations for GAP management. After that, the Prime Minister also decided to have support policies to promote GAP production.

Currently, GAP production has two types: VietGAP and other GAP types (including GlobalGAP). GAP regulations are not mandatory, but only encourage safe production measures to ensure the health of people, the community as well as the ecological environment.

According to the Government 's regulations, our country has 6 groups of crops that are being focused on GAP production: vegetables, fruits, and tea - three foods we eat and drink directly. In addition, there are rice, coffee, and pepper.

"However, currently production according to VietGAP in our country is very modest. According to the data we investigate every 5 years (investigated in 2023) and announce in 2024, our country only has approximately 150,000 hectares of production according to VietGAP for the 6 groups of plants mentioned above.

Vegetables alone are only over 8,000 hectares, a very modest number out of the total of 1.15 million hectares of vegetables. Fruit trees are about 76,000 hectares and tea is about 5,200 hectares. Other GAP types are about 440,000 hectares, but vegetables are only about 8,400 hectares.

"Of our current total vegetable area of ​​1.15 million hectares, VietGAP production accounts for less than 1% (about 0.5-0.6%) - an extremely modest number, while vegetables are the food we eat every day," said Mr. Duong.

Mr. Nguyen Quy Duong shared information at the seminar - Photo: A. DUY

Tighten food safety assurance before putting on the market

Mr. Nguyen Van Muoi, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said that to ensure food safety, the most basic factor is to have a standard production process, in which VietGAP is the minimum requirement.

However, as Mr. Duong said, only about 0.5-0.6% of vegetables meet VietGAP standards. When the minimum standards are not met, it means that we are letting the quality float and this risk is borne by consumers. Therefore, it is time to have stronger measures to control the quality of goods circulating on the market.

Regarding the market, according to Mr. Muoi, markets and supermarket systems can be managed and controlled, but small retail stores are very difficult to control and this is a risk factor for consumers.

"It's time we pay more attention and take stronger actions, especially in terms of law to deter. For example, a food production enterprise bringing food to market must ensure food hygiene and safety conditions.

However, a farmer or a farm can produce up to thousands of tons of food to market each year but without any documents related to responsibility for food safety. This is very inappropriate because producing vegetables and fruits is also food" - Mr. Muoi shared and said that this is a management loophole that needs to be focused on tightening.

Three management departments but consumers are confused

According to Ms. Tran Thi Dung - Vice President and Head of the Inspection Committee of the Consumer Protection Association, consumers currently have no choice and are confused. In fact, even when consuming vegetables, tubers, fruits and products in our country, food safety management still has many shortcomings, no breakthroughs, "powerless".

The reason starts from the story that each type of food requires 3 ministries to manage (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment). Therefore, Ms. Dung believes that the legal system needs to be complete, with transparent and comprehensive standards and regulations, and a minimum requirement that goods on the market must be labeled...

"Some state agencies are currently not determined to ensure food safety for domestic consumers. When we export fruit to China and other countries, we are required to have growing areas.

Why don't we create growing areas for domestic production? Currently, there are local authorities at the commune and ward levels. We should have regulations and train them to do a good job of managing local production households, in which areas" - Ms. Dung raised the issue.

Back to topic

WISDOM - NGOC AN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/choang-voi-con-so-dien-tich-rau-trong-theo-tieu-chuan-vietgap-o-viet-nam-20250923182811019.htm