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Regulations on exporting fruit to China only positive step
While farmers fear that they will meet difficulties in exporting fruit to China after July 1, 2009, government agencies have reassured them that the application of the regulations on tracing origins will benefit consumers of the two countries.
Under the agreement signed between the two countries, Vietnamese fruit exported to China as of July 1 must have clean ‘resumes’ and meet stipulated requirements on food hygiene.
While farmers complain about the complicated procedures they have to follow to export fruit to China, government agencies say that this should have been implemented a long time ago, as it benefits consumers and producers.
According to Dr Nguyen Minh Chau, Head of the Southern Fruit Tree Research Institute, the requirements set by the Chinese side are the Viet GAP and Global GAP requirements which are applied in many countries in the world. The origin tracing of fruit is international practice, and it seems to be a bit late that the requirements are only now beginning to be applied in Vietnam-China trade, Chau said.
Nguyen Nhu Tiep, Senior Official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the application of the regulation on origin tracing is just the first step in the campaign to ensure the hygiene of food products that pass back and forth between the two countries.
The requirements will be applied not only to Vietnamese, but Chinese exporters as well. Vietnam also imports farm produce from China.
“Therefore, both sides will benefit from the regulation,” Tiep said. “As the quality of imports will improve, the trade of farm produce between the two countries will increase.”
However, Chau said that if the Chinese side applies the new regulation right on July 1, Vietnamese farm produce exported to China will meet initial difficulties, since farmers and exporters do not have much time left to register information. It was not until May 25 that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development released a dispatch to local departments, instructing the departments to initiate the registration of information.
By June 23, only 39 provinces and cities had submitted reports about local producers, packagers and exporters registering information for exporting fruit to China. A lot of farmers and packaging establishments say they still have not heard about the new regulation.
An official from Bac Giang Trade and Industry Department admitted that the information about the new regulation has just reached big enterprises, while it has not reached most growers and collectors. A lot of growers and enterprises in Binh Thuan province, which puts out 75 percent of dragon fruit in Vietnam, said in mid June that they had not been informed about the new regulation.
When asked if Vietnam’s farm produce exports will get stuck at the border gate if exporters had not registered, Phung Huu Hao, Deputy Head of the Agency for Agro-forestry and Seafood Quality Control, said that July 1 is just the day the new regulation will be implemented, it is not the last day exporters can register. Enterprises and individuals can register with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development any time and the ministry will send the Chinese side updated lists. As the registration process is simple, exports will not get stuck.
Hao said that in the immediate time, Chinese agencies will be satisfied with a list of enterprises which will export five types of fruit, while they will still strictly check the quality of fruit exports and for residues.
In fact, the regulation is only new to some enterprises which export fruit to China, while it is not new to many enterprises which export products to Europe or the US.
VietNamNet, TBKTVN
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