Farmers collect lychees in Phượng Sơn Commune, Lục Ngạn District in the northern province of Bắc Giang in July 2023.—VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will invest in building and completing a database and software for tightening the management of planting areas and packaging facilities to serve agricultural product export.

The move aims to improve the efficiency of management and supervision of planting area codes and agricultural product packing facilities for export, Hoàng Trung, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said at an online conference on “Strengthening the Statement management of planting area codes and agricultural product packing facilities for export”, held in the northern mountainous province of Lạng Sơn on Thursday morning.

The ministry also plans to continue negotiating to expand export markets and diversify goods as well as support localities and businesses to meet the requirements of the markets, he said.

It will provide more professional guidance and training for local officials on regulations of importing countries, he said.

It will also mean more inspections of issuance, management and use of planting codes in localities, and coordination with relevant ministries, sectors and localities to handle violations, he said.

Supervisions of plant quarantine, goods safety as well as information on the planting areas and packing facilities related to agricultural product export will be tightened, he said.

He tasked the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in relevant provinces and cities to arrange human resources to issue, manage and supervise the planting area codes as well as packaging facilities to serve agricultural product export.

Violations must be strictly dealt with, he said.

He told the planting areas and packaging facilities’ owners to strictly follow the production processes and comply with the requirements of the importing countries.

Speaking at the event, Huỳnh Tấn Đạt, director of the Ministry Plant Protection Department said 6,883 planting area codes and 1,588 agricultural-product packing facility codes have been granted so far in Việt Nam.

These codes mainly focus on main export products such as mango, dragon fruit, longan, rice and durian, he said.

The Mekong Delta is the leading region in terms of the number of planting area codes and packing facilities, he said.

However, the department had recently received warnings from importing countries regarding non-compliance with phytosanitary requirements of Vietnamese agricultural products, he said.

The warnings also required Việt Nam to take cohesive measures to strictly control phytosanitary and pesticide residues in agricultural products for export, he said.

Lương Trọng Quỳnh, deputy chairman of the People's Committee of Lạng Sơn, said China has increasingly raised the requirements for the quality of Việt Nam's agricultural products, especially for pest control on the agricultural products.

If harmful organisms are found in an agricultural product, they will require the entire shipment of the agricultural products to return to Việt Nam, he said.

They once suspended the import of an agricultural product for failing to meet their requirements, he said.

Therefore, it is very important to control the quality of agricultural products at the source and establish a plant quarantine system, according to participants at the conference. — VNS