Vietnamese business leaders and Government officials have stated that measures must be taken by the nation’s companies to adapt to changes in China’s import regulations for agricultural products.
Businesses need to change their approach in exporting agricultural products to China, said Le Thi Mai Anh, head of Asia-Africa Markets Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Anh said China has been evolving with much tighter regulations to oversee the import of agricultural products, especially on packaging, origin of products and geo-tagging.
“We must understand that these changes in regulations aren’t out of nowhere. They have always been there. Chinese authorities have only recently started reinforcing them,” she said.
Anh said the rules are likely to get even stricter as Chinese authorities are starting to crack down on products which are low-quality or don’t meet China’s safety standards.
Last week, nearly 500 trucks filled with Vietnamese agricultural products were held up at the Tan Thanh-Po Chai Border Gate in the border province of Lang Son. Most of them were transporting dragon fruit from the Mekong Delta. The backlog was caused by a spike in the number of trucks trying to cross the border that had not been anticipated by Chinese customs authority, as well as a much longer inspection process of six to seven minutes on average compared to just over two minutes previously.
Vietnamese companies must pay more attention to managing the origin of products and geo-tagging, said Dang Phuc Nguyen, secretary-general of Vinafruit told mard.gov.vn.
