On June 30, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment held a ceremony to announce the official operation of the Agricultural Product Traceability System, after a pilot period for export durian products.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, this is an important milestone in the roadmap for building a national traceability system for agricultural, forestry and fishery products to contribute to the development of a transparent and modern agriculture, improve competitiveness, protect the reputation of Vietnamese agricultural products and strengthen consumer confidence in the domestic and international markets.
Directing at the Conference, Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung affirmed that this is a meaningful event for the agricultural sector in general and for consumer production and export enterprises in particular, especially contributing to the implementation of Resolution 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo.
Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung said that to develop sustainable agriculture, Vietnam must simultaneously implement two key tasks: building a brand for Vietnamese agricultural products and making the entire production process transparent through traceability to conquer demanding markets.
However, the Deputy Prime Minister also pointed out that domestic agricultural production is still small-scale and scattered with a large number of production households, creating many challenges in the process of deploying the system nationwide. Therefore, the implementation needs to be focused and key, ensuring efficiency and suitability with actual conditions. "It is necessary to identify traceability as a tool to improve the quality, value and competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products, not just an arising administrative procedure," the Deputy Prime Minister stated clearly. Accordingly, the implementation guidance must ensure simplicity, convenience, and suitability with production conditions and farming habits of the people.
At the Conference, representatives of businesses also identified traceability as an important foundation for businesses to simultaneously improve the transparency and sustainability of Vietnamese agricultural products.
Mr. Ta Van Tuong - Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Environment said that Hanoi City's traceability system is ready to connect with the traceability system of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. At the same time, he affirmed that transparency of origin traceability information is closely related to product quality.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, to date, the System has integrated information and traceability data of over 18,500 products, belonging to 181 product groups of 170 enterprises in 24/34 provinces and cities. For durian export products, 16 enterprises have participated in the pilot program; initially, 6 containers of enterprises successfully exported to the Chinese market through the application of electronic traceability on the Ministry's System.
In the coming time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will continue to coordinate with ministries, branches, localities, industry associations, businesses and technology units to expand the scope of system implementation. In which, priority is given to key agricultural, forestry and fishery product groups, export products and products with high requirements for quality, food safety, and transparency of origin.
