A farmer harvest lychees in the northern province of Bắc Giang. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has proposed Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) to consider special and creative solutions solving difficulties for Việt Nam’s export of fresh lychees to Japan.

The proposal was sent by Minister of Industry and Trade Trần Tuấn Anh after the MAFF announced that it was impossible to send experts to Việt Nam to inspect and recognise the disinfection treatment system of fresh lychee exported from Việt Nam due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore, the export of Việt Nam’s fresh lychee to the Japanese market for the first time would not be implemented in the 2020 lychee harvest. 

In the proposal, Anh said the handling of such difficulties would be suitable with the ASEAN–Japan Economic Ministers' Joint Statement on Initiatives on Economic Resilience in Response to the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak.

The MoIT leader has also asked the Vietnamese Ambassador in Japan to work with MAFF to persuade them to consider other solutions instead of having to send experts to Việt Nam to inspect disinfection facilities.

The solutions include giving temporary authority to independent inspection organisations in Việt Nam to inspect disinfection facilities in the short term or coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Việt Nam to implement remote inspection measures (checks on files and via livestream of disinfection facilities).

The ministry has also sent document to its branches in the northern provinces of Hải Dương and Bắc Giang, which are hubs of Vietnamese lychees, asking them to closely coordinate with its agencies to solve difficulties for the export of lychees to Japan.

According to Director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Plant Protection Department Hoàng Trung, all the technical issues to ship lychees to Japan have been completed, including growing area codes, the issuance of codes for packaging facilities, especially the building of disinfection treatment facilities following the Japan’s request. 

“The lychee is currently growing well. My department has sent officials to localities, conducting a food hygiene programme for lychees,” Trung said.

This year, Bắc Giang Province has over 28,000ha of lychees with an estimated output of over 160,000 tonnes, an increase of 10,000 tonnes year-on-year.

To prepare for the first fresh lychee batch exported to Japan, Bắc Giang authorities have coordinated with the Plant Protection Department to select and propose the Japanese side to approve 19 growing area codes with a total area of ​​103ha, with an estimated output of 600 tonnes in Yên Thế and Lục Ngạn districts.

Meanwhile, Hải Dương Province has 9,700ha with an estimated output of 45,000 tonnes. The province has built 23 lychee and longan growing areas, which met standards of Japanese, American, Australian and EU markets for plant quarantine and food safety. — VNS