At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment in November, information about the authorities prosecuting a number of subjects related to the illegal trading of growing area codes received a lot of attention.
Responding to the press on this issue, Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection Nguyen Quoc Manh said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is currently managing 2 types of growing area codes: Crop growing area codes issued according to the provisions of Article 64 of the Law on Crop Production ( domestic growing area code) and growing area codes for packaging facilities, implemented according to decrees signed with importing countries (export growing area code).
To date, the ministry has issued 5,900 domestic growing area codes, 9,334 export growing area codes and 1,752 packaging facility codes.
The Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection affirmed that the growing area code for export has been clearly regulated in the minutes, the codes granted to the area and subjects are clear. Therefore, buying and selling growing area codes that are not in accordance with regulations is a violation of the law and need to be handled according to the law.
"Illegal trading of growing area codes greatly affects the reputation of Vietnamese agricultural products. Therefore, we consider these to be very serious acts, directly affecting production," said Mr. Nguyen Quoc Manh.
The representative of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection also informed that the Department has submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment a proposal to amend the Law on Crop Production, in which Article 64 is amended in the direction of adding the growing area code and packaging facility for management. The Department hopes that people, businesses, and organizations will clearly understand the regulations related to the issuance and management of growing area codes to strictly implement them.
In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has also directed relevant units to apply technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to trace the origin of agricultural products, first of all piloting durian.
Previously, on November 5, the Ministry of Public Security announced that the Department of Investigation Police on Corruption, Economic Crimes, and Smuggling (C03, Ministry of Public Security) had prosecuted 17 defendants in the case that occurred at the Center for Testing, Testing, Testing and Quality Services (Retaq), NhoNho Technology Company Limited (NhoNho Company), Thuy Fruit Company Limited (Thuy Fruit Company) and related units.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, during the investigation, Department C03 discovered that in the field of durian export business from Vietnam to China, there were activities of buying and selling growing area codes, buying and selling test papers, violating accounting regulations, causing particularly serious damage to State assets.
These violations also affect the proper operation of genuine enterprises, leading to a situation where durian is exported of unknown origin, does not meet standards, affects the reputation, and reduces the competitiveness of agricultural products in general, and Vietnamese durian in particular in the Chinese and world markets.
