May 10, 2011

Vietnam to draft stricter rules for feed supplements

Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will draft and enforce stricter regulations on the production of agricultural and seafood feed products, said Minister Cao Duc Phat in Hanoi on Friday (May 6).

Figures from the ministry's Department of Plant Protection show that Vietnam has about 200 businesses selling plant protection chemicals such as herbicides, fungicides and other feed supplements. It is found that 29,000 other shops are selling the product.

Director of the department Nguyen Xuan Hong said most enterprises still had to import the chemicals and then resell the product to farmers.

Inspections at the country's border gates revealed that about 4-5% of the imported chemicals were found to be of substandard quality, he said.

There were several violations in provinces of Thanh Hoa and Tien Giang, which accounted for 29% and 33% of the country's total violations.

Hong said that ineffective fines are to be blamed for the high rate of violations. "Management policies in this field are quite clear and specific, but ineffective punishments lead many businesses to continue operating without trade licenses," he said.

To deal with the issue, Minister Phat urged authorities to promptly re-examine criteria to classify businesses. He also said that legal statutes need to be drafted which addresses the origins of agricultural products.