Farmers harvest dragon fruits in Hàm Thuận Nam District, Bình Thuận Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Quang Nhựt

HÀ NỘI — The Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced that to date it has coordinated with importing countries to issue 6,997 growing area codes and 1,613 packaging facility codes for export.

Fresh fruits, such as dragon fruit, mango, star apple, banana, grapefruit, passion fruit, seedless lemon, longan, lychee, chilli, and black jelly were given codes for export to China, America, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, China and Japan.

The department also worked with the departments of agriculture and rural development of provinces and cities to promote the establishment of qualified planting areas and proactively inspect and closely monitor approved growing areas and code-issued packaging facilities. At the same time, it also directed and urged localities to implement Directive 1838/CT-BNN-BVTV and Document 1776/BNN-BVTV dated March 23, 2023, on granting and managing codes of growing areas and packaging facilities for export, development and management of growing area codes and facility codes for packaging agricultural products for export.

The department has actively coordinated with localities to develop, expand and supervise the number and planting areas of ​​codes as well as the number of packaging facilities meeting the requirements of importing countries.

Therefore, the department assigned its units to inspect some growing areas and packaging facilities in 13 provinces and cities, including Hải Dương, Bắc Giang, Sơn La, Đắk Nông, Đắk Lắk, Long An, Tiền Giang, Sóc Trăng, Cần Thơ, An Giang, Đồng Tháp, Đồng Nai and Bình Thuận.

Along with developing growing areas and packaging facilities for export products, the department also removed technical barriers and opened the market for fresh vegetables and key fruits.

Typically with Japan, the department agreed with the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) on the requirement to import Vietnamese mangoes and dragon fruits to Japan as well as the use of new stamps for Việt Nam’s exported goods to the Japanese market from August 1, 2023. It also agreed with MAFF on a plan to transfer plant quarantine supervision and treatment of Vietnamese fresh fruits before exporting to Japan as of April 2024.

For the Chinese market, the department exchanged information with the General Department of Customs of China to complete the draft protocol on import requirements for chilli, fresh coconuts, frozen durian and other traditional Vietnamese fresh fruits (except fresh bananas) exported to the Chinese market and continue the negotiation process for citrus fruit products and medicinal herbs.