Tight control of agricultural materials market

(VLO) The new crop season has begun, and farmers' demand for fertilizers and pesticides has increased. To protect consumers' rights, authorities have increased inspection and control of the agricultural materials market, contributing to limiting the trade in counterfeit and poor-quality goods.

Diversity of agricultural materials is a favorable condition for farmers to choose for production.

There are still many violations.

At this time, farmers in the province are focusing on taking care of the autumn-winter crop. The variety of agricultural products is a favorable condition for farmers to choose for production.

However, besides reputable, quality businesses that comply with legal regulations, there are still many cases of violations regarding quality, trademarks, packaging, etc.

These subjects use sophisticated tricks, not only affecting the quality of agricultural products, causing damage to producers, polluting the environment, but also causing economic damage, affecting legitimate production and business establishments.

Worried about the recent discovery of fake and poor quality pesticides and fertilizers, Mr. Ngo Van Do (Hieu Thanh commune, Vung Liem district) shared: “I am cultivating 1 hectare of oranges which are in the flowering stage so I need to fertilize.

But the PB market today has many types and prices that are difficult to distinguish between real and fake. Only when fertilizing plants does not work do you know that it is both costly and time-consuming, and the plants do not grow and develop well.

According to the provincial Market Management Department, since the beginning of the year, market management teams have inspected and discovered many cases of fake and poor quality PB circulating on the market.

Specifically, in the first months of the year, Market Management Team No. 3 inspected and detected 16/25 violations, handled 16 administrative fines with nearly 350 million VND, forced to return illegal profits of nearly 39.5 million VND, and forced to recall and destroy infringing goods worth nearly 319 million VND.

It is worth mentioning that through inspection and sampling testing, 50% of the samples were found to have quality violations, of which 6 samples were counterfeit and 1 sample was of poor quality.

Through inspection, most of the violations were PB produced outside the province (mainly produced in Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, Ben Tre and some provinces in the Southeast) and put into circulation in Vinh Long.

According to the authorities, in addition to violations of product quality, violations of PB labeling are quite common, such as domestically produced PB with information written in a foreign language on the packaging, and a very small additional label in Vietnamese, making consumers mistakenly believe that the product is produced abroad.

Or in the case where the information on the label is PB NPK (prominent, easy to see letters) but in fact the ingredients are only NP or NK; the product has information on content, ingredients and indicators but the size of the numbers is very small, thereby giving a selling price equal to the selling price of PB NPK, causing damage when consumers "buy the wrong thing".

Not only that, violators use tricks to deal with inspection agencies by only delivering PB batches worth less than 30 million VND or a delivery with many batches with different production dates, avoiding criminal liability when sampling batches with quality indicators of 70% or lower than the prescribed minimum level.

Taking advantage of farmers' lack of knowledge, lack of information, preference for cheap goods, promotion programs, and gifts, many businesses organize seminars to advertise poor quality PB, products with confusing brands...

Strengthen inspection and tighten management

To protect consumers' rights, recently, the authorities have stepped up coordination in inspecting and controlling the pesticide and plant protection drug market.

According to Mr. Nguyen Minh Quang - Deputy Captain of Market Management Team No. 3, among the diversity of agricultural products on the market, identifying signs of violations in production and trading of agricultural products is an important factor that determines the effectiveness of inspection and examination work of the functional sector.

Currently, PB production and trading activities in the province have been basically well controlled. The authorities regularly monitor and supervise PB advertising, introduction, and delivery activities at stores and agents, especially in areas bordering Dong Thap, Tra Vinh, Ben Tre, Can Tho City, etc. to promptly detect, prevent, and handle poor quality PB and fake PB from entering the area.

However, according to the assessment of the functional sector, the situation of fake PB, poor quality PB, label violations, unknown origin... is still quite complicated.

Mr. Le Thanh Phong - Director of the Provincial Market Management Department, said: Following the direction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the General Department of Market Management, the Provincial People's Committee, the Provincial Market Management Department will continue to strengthen inspection and control of PB products and plant protection drugs.

Direct the Market Management force to strengthen the management of the area, regularly monitor the subjects, lines, and groups specializing in the production, transportation, and trading of fake and poor quality PB products in the area under their responsibility.

In particular, pay attention to managing subjects that take advantage of e-commerce and social networks to commit violations. Strengthen coordination with relevant authorities and units to proactively prevent, detect and promptly handle PB and pesticide trading activities.

At the same time, propagate to agents and stores trading in agricultural chemicals not to participate in buying and selling or assisting violators; warn of the harmful effects of producing and trading in poor quality pesticides and insecticides that affect crop productivity and quality; advise traders to be careful when choosing sources of goods and suppliers and to be responsible for the quality of goods sold at their establishments, stores and agents.

The authorities also recommend that when purchasing PB products with suspected counterfeits, farmers should immediately report to the nearest authorities and local authorities to coordinate inspection and sample testing. After using PB and pesticides, the packaging should be retained and a log of use should be kept as a basis for investigation.

Only buy pesticides with clear origin and source from fixed, reputable businesses. Limit buying and selling PB products and plant protection drugs online or from people who come to your home to offer...

According to the provincial Market Management Department, in the second quarter, 102 PB trading cases were inspected, with a violation rate of over 65%. Administrative fines of over VND827 million were imposed; illegal profits of VND17.8 million were imposed; remedial measures were taken for the illegal evidence worth over VND1.5 billion. Two cases of counterfeit PB trading were transferred to the police investigation agency (Tam Binh district and Vung Liem district) for review regarding their value and utility.

Article and photos: GOOD WILL - TRA MY

Source: https://baovinhlong.vn/kinh-te/202408/kiem-soat-chat-thi-truong-vat-tu-nong-nghiep-3185950/