The Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry (MARD) informed that at present, the proportion of durian codes under monitoring is rather low, at around 50 percent.
The Department of Plant Protection under MARD reveals that there are now 708 Production Unit Codes (PUCs) for durian on a surface area of over 26,000ha and 168 Pack House Codes (PHCs). However, the percentages of monitored PUCs and PHCs are only 52 percent and 47.6 percent respectively.
The provinces with low PUC monitoring are Dak Nong, Binh Phuoc, Vinh Long, Binh Thuan, Hau Giang, Tien Giang, and Dong Thap while those with low PHC monitoring are Long An and Dong Nai.
After receiving warnings from Chinese functional agencies about exported durian from Vietnamese contaminated with excessive Cadmium, the Plant Protection Department has established an inspection team to collect samples in localities mentioned in the above warnings. No samples were detected with the Cadmium level exceeding the threshold like being reported by China.
However, the Plant Protection Department admitted that localities now are not actively monitoring the status of durian growing and harvesting in accordance with the Protocol related to durian, and thus do not timely handle violations.
MARD requested stricter monitoring over all PUCs and PHCs to promptly discover regulation breaking actions in order to suspend or revoke the codes of violating growing units and packaging facilities.
