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In Long An Province, 109 facilities to package dragon fruits obtain a PUC |
Deputy Director Le Van Thiet of the Plant Protection Department (under the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry) informed that Vietnam has issued 6,883 PUCs for 25 exported fruits like dragon fruit, longan, lychee, mango, rambutan, star apple, lemon, grapefruit, and mangosteen to 11 markets such as China, the US, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Japan, European countries, Thailand. 57 percent of them are located in the Mekong Delta, the highest being Dong Thap Province.
In addition, in the Mekong Delta, there are now 626 PUCs for packaging facilities in operation, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the whole country, the highest being Tien Giang Province. Sadly, after regular examination, the province has to withdraw 535 PUCs as related facilities could not satisfy the requirements of importing nations.
Head of the Kien Giang Province Plant Growing and Protection Unit said that without fully meeting the requirements by the Plant Protection Department on establishing and monitoring fruit farms and packaging facilities, a business cannot export its produce. Therefore, PUCs are the key for domestic produce to enter foreign markets.
Since 2021, the Plant Protection Department has received 4 notices from China as to fruit shipments not in compliance with phytosanitary criteria or not having valid phytosanitary certificates. Tien Giang Province occupied the highest proportion of violations, at 35.6 percent for 267 cases.
Except for Hau Giang Province with a high monitoring percentage of over 80 percent and nearly 95 percent for fruit farms and packaging facilities respectively, other provinces like Dong Thap and Long An have disappointing monitoring proportions of only 23 percent and 0.3 percent correspondingly, which are unacceptably low.
According to the Tien Giang Province Agriculture and Rural Development Department, for more effective management and issuance of PUCs, in the upcoming time, it is going to hold more training sessions for residents in need and closely check to withdraw the PUCs of any places not satisfying the requirements.
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Many fruits in the Mekong Delta already obtaining their own PUCs need careful quality monitoring for sustainable export (Photo: SGGP) |
Deputy Director Thiet commented that the attention of provinces to the PUC monitoring task has improved lately but not enough. Most are still at the stage of instructing how to establish a facility and register for a PUC, not to the monitoring and checking stages. This is the main factor leading to violations lately.
Another difficulty, as cited by Deputy Director Tran Cong Danh of the Kien Giang Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, is that a large number of farmers still underestimate the importance of PUCs. They are rather confused about the process to sign up for a PUC, necessary information or requirements after owning one.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Trung stressed that it is forbidden to issue a phytosanitary certificate to any shipments not complying with regulations. The violating shipments have to return to places of origin, and related businesses are not allowed to export goods until proper measures are applied to amend the situation. In serious cases, the PUCs of those enterprises must be withdrawn.
Functional agencies and the local authorities must provide more instructions and carry out more frequent examinations of the facilities and farms with operative PUCs. When a violation is detected, a phytosanitary certificate is not delivered to that shipment.
The Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry also requests that localities strengthen their monitoring of places obtaining PUCs and do not issue any codes to organizations breaking the regulations. This Ministry is working with the Justice Ministry to ask the Government to develop two decrees related to PUC issuance for farms and packaging facilities as well as sanctions for law breaking cases.
Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reveal that from 2013-2022, the surface area of fruit farms in the Mekong Delta expanded significantly to reach over 400,000ha. This impressive growth must go along with maintaining produce quality and obeying phytosanitary regulations via safe production.
Fruit farms must strictly follow production procedures and requirements of importing countries, and further, observe Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP). It is necessary to keep a diary of plant cultivation, plant diseases or pests and treatments, especially those attracting much concern of importing countries.
Packaging facilities must closely obey the one-way packaging procedure and traceability rules. They must use suitable equipment to satisfy the requirements of importing nations. Their production technology improvements, human resources training, management capacity increase, food sanitation monitoring can greatly enhance their own competitiveness.
