At the end of the year, New Year's Day and Lunar New Year are the times of increased consumption, food safety control is not only an immediate requirement, but also a prerequisite for Vietnamese agricultural products to develop sustainably and stably in both domestic and international markets.
Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Quang Hieu, Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) said that in the past, the Department has implemented many programs to ensure food safety such as promulgating the Principle of using "four correct" pesticides, encouraging the application of natural processes in cultivation, guiding farmers to produce according to safety procedures, etc.
"This is not just a seasonal or peak job, but a regular task, deployed all year round to control food safety right from the growing area" - Mr. Hieu emphasized.
On the local side, the Department has also issued a set of technical instructions and professional documents to direct and support competent authorities in controlling food safety in agricultural production.
Previously, regarding the congestion in durian exports due to the temporary suspension of some testing rooms, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment held an urgent meeting to quickly review the capacity of laboratories, mobilize qualified units to support sample processing, and request the accuracy and consistency of results between the two sides of Vietnam and China.
After about a week of drastic handling and implementation, testing capacity has been restored, the amount of remaining samples has been resolved, laboratories have resumed operations and durian export activities at the border gate are now taking place smoothly.
Recently, the Department of Investigation Police on Corruption, Economic Crimes, and Smuggling (C03, Ministry of Public Security) has prosecuted 17 defendants in the case that occurred at the Center for Testing, Testing, Testing and Quality Services (Retaq) and a number of related enterprises. The defendants are being investigated for buying and selling growing area codes, testing papers, receiving - giving - brokering bribes and violating accounting regulations, causing damage to state assets, affecting the reputation and competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products in the international market.
The above case shows that food safety control, traceability and crop code management play a particularly important role, especially in the context of Vietnam boosting agricultural exports to major markets with strict technical requirements.
