Immediately, the Plant Protection Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent an official dispatch requesting relevant businesses to retrieve the warned shipments; Review all records and production, collection and export processes; Take corrective actions and apply preventive measures to avoid recurrence of violations. The Department also requires localities to monitor businesses to retrieve warned shipments, verify the causes and corrective measures of businesses, and review food safety conditions at the units with the shipments. warned goods.
This is not the first time Vietnamese fruit has been issued a warning by China. Last year, some shipments of bananas, jackfruit, mangoes, longans, dragon fruits and durians... also did not comply with China's quarantine requirements. Such developments are extremely worrying in the context that China is a large and potential market for the export of Vietnamese goods, especially in the field of agricultural products.
According to data from China Customs, in 2023, the country of billions of people spent more than 24 billion USD to import vegetables, fruits and processed products to meet domestic consumption needs. Notably, in 2023, Vietnam surpassed Chile, taking second place in exporting vegetables, tubers, fruits and processed products to this country with a turnover of 3,4 billion USD. Vietnam's market share in the Chinese market nearly doubles from 8% in 2022 to 14% in 2023. Meanwhile, Thailand still maintains the leading position with a turnover of 8,6 billion USD, accounting for 36% of the market. share – down nearly 2 percentage points compared to the same period in 2022.
Fruit and vegetable exports have made such rapid progress in the Chinese market thanks to recent efforts by the authorities to open the market through promoting the signing of Food Quarantine Protocols. wrestling with China. For example, Vietnam's fresh durian is licensed to officially export to the Chinese market from July 7.2022. In 2023, China imported nearly 493.000 tons of Vietnamese durian, worth 2,1 billion USD, an increase of 1.107% in volume and 1.035,8% in value compared to 2022.
Obviously, the Chinese market has great significance in consuming Vietnamese agricultural products. Bringing agricultural products here through official channels is a fundamental solution to consume our country's agricultural products. And if there is laxity in management, inspection, and supervision in growing areas and packaging facilities, leading to an increase in the number of shipments violating plant quarantine regulations, one may face the risk of loss of this very important traditional market.
Here, the role of locality is very important. Because, currently, the management and issuance of codes for growing areas and packaging facilities for exported agricultural products has been standardized and strongly decentralized to localities. The local agency specialized in plant protection and quarantine is the place that carries out and is responsible for all the establishment, physical inspection, completion of dossiers, issuance of codes and ensuring the maintenance of conditions. Technical specifications for issued planting area and packaging facility codes.
Therefore, localities must allocate enough resources to inspect and monitor growing areas and packaging facilities that have been granted codes to ensure compliance with regulations and avoid the risk of being imposed with regulations. strict control measures from China. Opening the market is difficult, maintaining the market is even more difficult, but it is something that must be done to have sustainable output for agricultural products in general and vegetables and fruits in particular.
