Agricultural products exported to Korea pay attention to pesticide residues

Enterprises processing and exporting agricultural products need to strictly comply with Korean regulations on pesticide residue levels when exporting agricultural products to this market.

Vietnamese mangoes have a lot of room to increase exports to Korea, but that comes with strict quality requirements.

In January 2024, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea (MFDS) conducted random inspections of imported mango products being sold in the Korean market, including mango products originating from Vietnam and the Philippines.

Through testing, Vietnamese and Philippine mangoes had pesticide residues of 0.08mg/g and 0.05mg/g respectively , exceeding the prescribed level of the PLS system (0.01mg/g).

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...

Vietnam's total import-export turnover with South Korea in 2023 reached 76 billion USD, down 12.2% over the same period in 2022. Of which, Vietnam's exports to South Korea reached 23.5 billion USD; Vietnam's import turnover from South Korea reached 52.5 billion USD .

MFDS has recalled mango products of Vietnamese origin exported by CT Agricultural Products Production and Processing Company Limited to the Korean market and recommends that consumers who have purchased Vietnamese mango export products return them to the place of sale.

After the recall announcement on January 22, no additional shipments of mangoes originating from Vietnam exceeding the permitted standards were detected.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Korea, in addition to bananas and pineapples , mangoes are popular tropical fruit products in the Korean market, with huge demand.

Every year, South Korea imports about 25,000 tons of mangoes worth about 110 million USD, mainly from Peru and Thailand.

Although the export turnover of Vietnamese mangoes to Korea has increased from 7.9 million USD (2022) to 9.9 million USD (2023), Vietnamese mangoes have not paid attention to pesticide residues, leading to regrettable violations of technical standards for products imported into the Korean market.

According to experts, 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 grown in a scattered manner, making it difficult to control the entire process of planting, harvesting and steam treatment.

Therefore, Vietnamese authorities need to further promote information dissemination and early warning for Vietnamese mango exporting enterprises.

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.

If such incidents are not prevented in time, they will negatively affect the image of Vietnamese agricultural products.

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.

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).

Of which, the bilateral FTA is the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) which has been in effect since 2015, the multilateral FTA is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which will be in effect from early 2022, and the ASEAN-Korea Trade in Goods Agreement (AKFTA) which took effect in 2007.

The commitment to eliminate tariffs in these FTAs is significantly facilitating import and export activities between the two countries.

In addition, 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.

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