Maintaining the export fruit market must improve quality

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Meeting the regulations on plant quarantine and food safety of importing countries will help Vietnamese fruits to maintain the market. Photo: N.Hien.

It took dozens of years to open the door

Recently, the work of negotiating to remove barriers on plant quarantine to open the market for Vietnamese agricultural products has achieved many positive results, especially for Vietnam’s fresh fruit exports to countries. The main fresh fruits such as dragon fruit, mango, rambutan, and longan have been adopted by most of the demanding and valuable markets like the United States, EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Korea to allow imports. This result is an international recognition for the reputation of the quality of fresh Vietnamese fruits and vegetables. This result has also contributed to the growth in Vietnam's fruit and vegetable export turnover, from about 1 billion USD in 2013 to 3.8 billion USD in 2018.

According to the Department of Plant Protection (Plant Protection) - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the market opening for fruits is very difficult and prolonged. Specifically, for the Chinese market, to open the door for fresh fruit, China requires the submission of a technical dossier to assess pest risk, based on that result to develop import requirements and to sign a protocol (Protocol). From 2018, China requires the application of traceability for imported products, specifically the packaging area and packaging facility. To meet this requirement, the Plant Protection Department has carried out 1,200 planting area codes and 564 packing houses and continues to update as required by localities.

EU countries have also developed a set of specific provisions for each item in Directive 2000/29 / EC. Therefore, although there is no need to negotiate market access for products exported to the EU, to maintain the market, very high requirements on plant quarantine must be ensured. The EU has a very strict control system for imported goods across border; violations are warned and depending on the extent of the violation to be applied to the place of origin, destruction or suspension of import.

For developed markets such as the United States, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, Chile ..., to open the market for a fresh fruit product, the Plant Protection Department has to build a technical dossier: Including technical information required by the importing country. After that, the importing country plant protection and quarantine agency perform a pest risk analysis for each fresh fruit from Vietnam. This process requires negotiation time to agree on the list of pests that must be controlled and measures to be taken to manage pests. Accordingly, the time to complete the market opening usually lasts 3-15 years depending on the requirements of the importing country.

The risk of losing the market

Market opening requires a lot of time and effort, but if it does not meet the import requirements, the risk of losing the market will be very high. According to the Plant Protection Department, when the importing country checks goods at the port of arrival and detects violations such as phytosanitary objects, disinfection failures, record errors ..., it will send a warning to the exporting country to take corrective action. However, depending on the extent of the violation or the number of repetitions, the importing country may apply many measures such as: reprocessing, destroying, returning to the place of export, and even applying the suspension of import to reassess the pest risk. From the results of the re-assessment of the pest risk, the importing country will apply additional measures with higher requirements, even banning imports.

In addition, countries now tend to improve the technical barriers to plant quarantine and food safety, even with the Chinese market, which is considered an easy market. Therefore, market opening will become more and more difficult. Besides, according to Mr. Le Van Duc, Director of Department of Crop Production, funding for opening export markets for agricultural products is one of the biggest difficulties. Currently, there is no source of funding for the data collection survey to build a technical dossier at the request of the importing country, conducting research, confirming the technical capacity to meet the requirements of the importing country, especially in the implementation of new treatment measures with modern technology as well as funding for the reception of teams of plant quarantine experts from importing countries for actual inspection of plant quarantine, preliminary processing, packaging and handling facilities.

In addition, international transport services from Vietnam to some regions such as South America and Africa are still unfavorable, often through transshipment. Vietnam's export freight expenses in comparison with other countries in the region are still high and the government has no policy to support freight expenses as some countries are applying, which leads to high export costs, affecting on effectiveness of export performance even though the market has been opened.

In this situation, experts believe that market opening should focus on large markets, convenient transportation services and Vietnamese products with competitive advantages such as dragon fruit, longan and rambutan, pomelo, mango ... The state also needs to plan and develop concentrated production areas in service of key export products in association with the issuance of plantation codes as well as monitoring and management of planted area codes that have been issued to ensure sustainability.

Export growth of fruit and vegetable this year is less than a quarter of the previous year VCN – It is expected that the export of fruit and vegetable will reach over $US 4 ...

On the side of enterprises, it is necessary to promptly grasp market information and legal regulations of importing countries and Vietnam. At the same time, the enterprises actively link in production - sustainable consumption and mutual benefits with farmers and scientific research agencies. Enterprises also need to invest in facilities, production and preliminary processing equipment ... to meet the requirements of the import market. In particular, it is necessary to comply with the laws on plant quarantine and food safety of Vietnam and importing countries, consciously preserving and building up the reputation of Vietnam's agricultural products.