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Officials warn of low-quality fertiliser
Following a country-wide inspection, agricultural inspectors have warned the market could be flooded by low-quality fertilisers due to poor oversight by authorised agencies and lenient penalties.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Cultivation Department last year inspected the production and distribution of both domestic and foreign fertilisers across the country.
The inspectors collected more than 850 samples in 17 cities and provinces.
The results of the check were announced by the department at a conference held in central Nha Trang City recently.
It found 419 samples, or almost half the total, failing to meet quality standards.
In the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, 97 of 195 samples were sub-standard. The figure was 89 out of 136 for Long An; 31 out of 70 for Ben Tre; 22 out of 47 for An Giang; 26 out of 58 for Tra Vinh; and 21 out of 40 for Binh Phuoc.
Nguyen Van Hinh, chief inspector at the An Giang Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said many sub-standard foreign fertilisers that do not find a place in the list of goods that can be imported continue to be sold.
The inspectors also discovered many low-quality fertilisers without clear origin.
Many fertiliser makers provided misleading information on their labels to buyers, Nguyen Van Duong, director of the Dong Thap Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said.
Though their products were ordinary fertilisers, they claimed they did not only make the land fertile but also cure some rice diseases like rice yellow dwarf, rice blast disease, and rice ragged stunt disease.
Management woes
The Cultivation Department told the conference that around 500 firms are involved in the production and distribution of 5,000 fertiliser products.
Local authorities do not monitor the industry well enough to prevent the production and trade of fake and low-quality fertilisers.
Most producers and traders found to indulge in fraudulent behaviour only get administrative penalties which they pay and then continue with their violations.
Pham Hoai An, deputy director of the Hau Giang Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said the multiplicity of agencies involved in managing the fertiliser industry meant their oversight was ineffective.
For instance, he said, the Ministry of Industry and Trade was responsible for managing inorganic fertilisers while the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development manages organic fertilisers and the Ministry of Science and Technology monitors product quality and technology transfers.
Delegates at the conference pointed out that the country did not have an organisation with the responsibility to certify that fertiliser products meet national standards.
This made the management of fertiliser products more difficult, enabling fake and low-quality products to be sold, they added.
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