Promptly address fraud in the use of durian growing area codes.

Given the increasingly stringent technical requirements, quality standards, and packaging requirements of import markets, the Plant Protection Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development requests localities to strengthen inspection, monitoring, and supervision of durian growing area codes and packaging facilities to ensure compliance with the Protocol's requirements.

People attach product traceability codes to durian trees.

Through this, violations and fraud in the use of planting area codes and export packaging facilities are detected and handled promptly; an annual monitoring program on food safety and quality standards for durian is implemented.

The Plant Protection Department recommends that localities develop technical solutions to effectively manage the codes of durian growing areas and packaging facilities for export. Along with this, they should strengthen inspection and supervision and strictly enforce the temporary suspension or revocation of durian growing area and packaging facility codes for cases of violations as prescribed.

Owners of growing areas and packing facilities must comply with quality control procedures, conducting random inspections of shipments before they are transferred to packing plants or before shipment. In addition, they must strictly implement internal monitoring; coordinate with management agencies to monitor growing areas and packing facilities according to regulations; and provide technical training to producers to ensure they understand the regulations. Simultaneously, they must organize a well-structured production chain from growing areas, packing facilities, plant quarantine facilities, and export to create high-quality products.

According to the Plant Protection Department, there are currently 708 registered growing areas covering over 26,000 hectares and 168 registered packaging facilities nationwide. However, the percentage of registered growing areas under monitoring is only 52%, and the percentage of registered packaging facilities is 47.6%.

Provinces with a high rate of monitoring of planting area codes include Lam Dong (100%), followed by Gia Lai, Dak Lak, etc. Provinces with a large number of planting area codes but a low monitoring rate include Dak Nong, Binh Phuoc, Vinh Long, Binh Thuan, Hau Giang, Tien Giang , and Dong Thap. Provinces with a high rate of monitoring of packaging facility codes include Dak Lak, Lam Dong, and Tien Giang. Provinces with a low monitoring rate include Long An and Dong Nai.

According to the Plant Protection Department, immediately after the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development decentralized the entire process of issuing and monitoring export-oriented planting area and packaging facility codes to localities, and based on consolidated reports from localities, it was found that: Localities have not been truly proactive in inspecting and monitoring export codes after they are issued in accordance with the regulations of the Durian Protocol. The monitoring rate is low, and in fact, many planting area and packaging facility codes are not monitored as required.

Furthermore, the handling of violations of the Protocol's regulations has not been timely or thorough. The quality of supervision has not improved significantly; supervision is lax and superficial. Some localities, despite having a high rate of supervision of planting area codes and packaging facilities, still violate China's plant quarantine and food safety regulations, as announced by the General Administration of Customs of China recently.

Many localities, businesses, and individual organizations only focus on guiding the issuance of new licenses and have not concentrated resources (human and financial) on monitoring the codes of durian growing areas and packaging facilities after approval.

According to the Plant Protection Department, these are also the main reasons leading to the fact that the number of durian shipments receiving warnings for violations of plant quarantine and food safety regulations has been increasing recently.

Recently, the Plant Protection Department announced the results of verifying 30 batches of Vietnamese durian that were flagged by China for exceeding the permitted limit for cadmium. Mr. Huynh Tat Dat, Director of the Plant Protection Department, stated that after receiving the warning, the Department requested local authorities and businesses to conduct a review. Simultaneously, an inspection team was formed to collect samples from durian growing areas included in the cadmium contamination warning list.

The team conducted thorough inspections of soil, water, fertilizer, supplies, growth stimulants, and chemicals used in durian processing... As a result, no samples were found to exceed the cadmium limit as warned by China, Mr. Dat informed.

In 2023, the total durian cultivation area nationwide was nearly 151,000 hectares. It is estimated that about 50% of this area is currently producing fruit, with a durian output of nearly 1.2 million tons in 2023. In the next few years, as the harvested area increases, Vietnam's durian production could double.

(According to baotintuc.vn)

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