Japan Authorizes Vietnam to Supervise Exported Lychees

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam will actively work with localities to keep an open watch on actual developments and arrange plant quarantine forces to support inspection of exported lychees.

The ministry will work to remove difficulties in agricultural production and business in the context of complicated Covid-19 pandemic development, especially agricultural products that are in the harvest such as vegetables, litchi and longan. It requested its subordinates to actively work with localities to keep an open watch on actual developments and arrange plant quarantine forces to support inspection of agricultural exports, especially lychee, which is about to be harvested.

Accordingly, the Plant Protection Department has focused on reviewing and updating production and output of vegetables and fruits, including lychee. The department has also urged plant quarantine units to actively monitor and closely follow actual developments and promptly notify changes in China's pandemic prevention measures that affect customs clearance time for timely settlement.

The department has also requested to arrange a plant quarantine force to support inspection of agricultural exports to avoid congestion at border gates and focused on preparing and supporting localities to export lychee to China, the United States and Japan.

Mr. Hoang Trung, Director of the Plant Protection Department, said that this year Japan authorized the supervision of lychees exported to this market to Vietnamese plant quarantine agencies. Therefore, when there are goods exported to Japan, the Plant Protection Department will send a quarantine force to localities for this purpose.

Recently, the Plant Protection Department inspected and assessed two lychee processors that export their products to Japan. In addition to certified facilities in Bac Giang province, this year, two facilities in Hai Duong province will be certified. Up to now, farming area codes and packing facilities in these localities are all ready to export lychee to foreign markets. In addition to enterprises that have cooperated for lychee export in previous years, the Plant Protection Department will continue to contact enterprises to coordinate with localities in registering area codes for purchasing commodities for export.

“Localities have been very active in the preparation work. The Bac Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also contacted the Plant Protection Department for preparatory stages to export lychee to China, as well as some markets such as the United States and Japan. Especially for the Japanese market, this year, they authorized supervision to quarantine agencies of Vietnam. The department worked with Bac Giang province to start when the Japanese side requested that it will send staff to support the province to carry out quarantine procedures as it had done in previous years," he added.

At a meeting with the ministry’s affiliated units earlier this week, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh stated that the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority under the ministry worked with relevant bodies to report to the Minister on the online meeting with some key localities and large enterprises to discuss solutions to promote production and consumption of lychee, longan and some other vegetables and fruits in the domestic market amid the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, so as to keep agricultural exports, including fruits, unaffected by the pandemic.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh also stated that the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority should host an online conference with counselors and Chief Trade Representative of Vietnam in China to discuss plans to export vegetables and fruits to China, including lychee; inspected fruit and vegetable consumption and export in key border provinces to promptly grasp situations and take active response measures to boost consumption and export amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Hai Duong and Bac Giang lychees are on e-commerce platforms for the first time, so they need to actively prepare well in terms of quality and quantity. The authority must work closely with the two localities to know difficulties and anticipate pandemic development to figure out likely scenarios. The authority needs to make a specific scenario for the Chinese market and host a meeting with counselors there. It will also need to work with large lychee traders and exporters to know their hardships and find solutions with them. The domestic consumption plan must concentrate on major supermarkets," he added.

Deputy Minister Doanh also noted that the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) continued to guide, support, and have feasible and timely solutions to facilitate distribution, import, export and consumption of commodities, especially raw materials for production and trading of agricultural products in localities affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum