Preventing the situation of selling and borrowing planting area codes
On the morning of May 26, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Lam Dong province organized a conference on managing growing areas and packaging facilities to promote durian exports for the 2026 crop year.
The conference aims to evaluate the management of planting area codes and durian packaging facilities; and at the same time record difficulties and obstacles to propose solutions to remove them.
According to Mr. Vu Dinh Cuong - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Lam Dong province, the locality has many advantages in climate and soil to develop specialized areas of high-quality agricultural products, especially durian.
Currently, the whole province has about 45,500ha of durian, the largest in the country, with an estimated output of about 310,000 tons in 2026. Products are mainly consumed domestically and exported to the Chinese market and some other countries.
The whole province has now been granted 346 durian growing area codes with an area of more than 13,297ha; 70 packaging facility codes for export and 69 growing area codes for domestic consumption.
According to Mr. Cuong, there is still a situation where some households do not fully comply with technical procedures, record formal production logs, and use pesticides not in accordance with regulations.
Notably, the situation of "borrowing codes", "selling codes" of growing areas and packaging facilities still occurs, posing many risks in tracing origin and affecting the export reputation of durian in the locality.
The authorization of planting area codes and packaging facilities between households, cooperatives and export enterprises is still lacking specific legal binding. When violations occur leading to the importer revoking the code, it is difficult to determine the responsibility of each party," Mr. Cuong said.
The locality is also facing difficulties due to the lack of testing laboratories with sufficient capacity to analyze Cadmium and Yellow O indicators on exported durian. During the harvest season, the overload of testing causes traffic jams.
Ensuring sustainable durian exports
According to the Sub-Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection of Lam Dong province, in the context of economic integration, import markets are increasingly tightening requirements on traceability, food safety and transparency of supply chains.
Standardizing planting area codes and packaging facility codes is no longer an option but has become a mandatory condition for official exports.
The whole province currently has 133 businesses and cooperatives purchasing durian; 47 production - consumption linkage chains with 1,678 participating households, with a total area of about 4,500ha.
According to Ms. Hoang Ngoc Duyen - Deputy Head of the Crop Production Department, Sub-Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection of Lam Dong province, the whole province has been approved by the General Department of Customs of China for 961 planting area codes with an area of 39,360ha and 362 packaging establishment codes for export.
In which, durian is the 2nd crop after dragon fruit in terms of scale and export code standardization speed.
At the conference, many businesses, cooperatives and people proposed strengthening links between businesses and farmers.
At the same time, tighten management of the use of planting area codes to limit the situation of buying and selling and using in violation of regulations.
Businesses also proposed that functional agencies create conditions to access Cadmium and Gold O testing services to serve export activities more conveniently.
On this occasion, relevant units signed contracts for testing, inspection and analysis of durian samples for export between specialized units and businesses and cooperatives with packaging establishment codes in the province.
