According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Lam Dong province, the whole province currently has 961 planting area codes with a total area of more than 39,360ha and 362 packaging facility codes serving exports. Durian alone has 346 planting area codes approved by China, with an area of about 13,297ha, along with 70 packaging facility codes meeting official export conditions.
Mr. Luu Hoang Tuan - representative of Bao Thi Agricultural Products Company, a durian purchasing enterprise in Da Huoai commune (Lam Dong) - said that according to the spirit of Resolution No. 36/2026/NQ-CP of the Government, the pre-inspection mechanism should still be maintained for exported agricultural products.
According to Mr. Tuan, pre-inspection helps businesses reduce the risk of goods being rejected by importers or prolonged customs clearance time. For durian, if it is stored at the border gate for too long, it will shorten the consumption time, reduce quality, lose competitive advantage, and even be returned goods.
Agreeing with this view, Mr. Vu Quang Chinh - owner of Minh Dang durian purchasing warehouse (Da Huoai commune) - proposed that pre-inspection should be carried out in the direction of enterprises or localities coordinating with competent authorities of the importing country. After immediate inspection at the preliminary processing and packaging facility, goods can be transported directly to the receiving unit without having to go through many inspection stages.
Besides the pre-inspection issue, many opinions assess that bringing the authority to issue planting area codes and packaging facilities to the commune level will create convenience for people, but it needs to be accompanied by guidance and resources.
Mr. Vu Quang Chinh assessed that the important thing is that the commune level must have specialized officials to support people in preparing dossiers, managing and maintaining codes. "Planting area codes are not everything, more important is product quality and meeting the requirements of the export market" - Mr. Chinh said.
Mr. Nguyen Hung Cuong - Vice Chairman of Da Huoai 2 Commune People's Committee - said that the locality agrees with the policy of decentralization according to Resolution No. 36/2026/NQ-CP because it helps shorten the time to resolve procedures. However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment needs to soon issue a unified professional process, train officials, and at the same time support information technology infrastructure, human resources and funding for communes to effectively implement new tasks.
From a cooperative perspective, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son - Director of Da M'ri Agricultural Cooperative - said that simplifying procedures will help many raw material areas be put into the official management system, contributing to the formation of a national database on growing areas and transparency of the supply chain.
According to Mr. Son, procedural reform does not mean loosening management. Enterprises and cooperatives still have to be responsible for managing raw material areas, purchasing in the registered areas to ensure traceability.
For the people, Mr. Nguyen Van Bang (a durian grower in Hoa Bac commune) commented that abolishing the minimum area regulation will create opportunities for small production households to link up with each other to be granted planting area codes. What people want most is to soon have specific instructions on registration forms.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nghi (Da Huoai 2 commune) said that many planting area codes were previously revoked due to improper use or abuse. According to him, for area owners who have fully overcome shortcomings, functional agencies should have a mechanism to consider re-issuing codes to avoid wasting raw material areas that meet export standards.
