Agriculture & Food

According to Vietnamese media reports, Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) recently signed a protocol with the General Administration of Customs of China on the requirements for plant quarantine of Vietnam's fresh bananas exported to China, which will bring benefits and opportunities to Vietnamese banana growers and international trade exporters.

From October 30 to November 1, Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, paid an official visit to China. The two sides signed 13 cooperation documents covering various fields, including the Vietnam Banana Export Protocol to China.

Minister Liming Huan of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam pointed out that the implementation of the protocol will help to reduce the rate of plant inspection and quarantine at ports, speed up customs clearance, ensure the official international trade export of bananas at a stable price, ease the congestion at border ports for agricultural products, reduce market risks, and improve the reputation of Vietnamese bananas in China.

According to the introduction, the protocol stipulates that all banana planting areas and packaging facilities exported to China for international trade must be approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam and the General Administration of Customs of China. The planting areas must be produced according to Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) standards, and the packaging process of planting areas and packaging facilities must be monitored. Packaging facilities must meet the product traceability requirements. When exporting to China, 2% of the samples must be taken for plant quarantine, and must comply with China's food safety standards. Minister Liming Huan added that Vietnam's fresh bananas will soon usher in official international trade exports.

At present, Vietnam has 11 kinds of fruits exported to China through regular trade channels, including pitaya, longan, rambutan, mango, jackfruit, watermelon, banana, mango, litchi, durian and passion fruit. Among them, Passion Fruit is only allowed to be imported through the pilot port in Guangxi for landing processing.

Although Vietnamese bananas are not included in the access list of the General Administration of Customs of China, Vietnamese bananas have been exported to China through border trade and other channels for many years. In the last three years, Vietnam's banana exports to China through international trade in plant quarantine exceeded 430000 tons (2020), 574000 tons (2021) and 591000 tons (the first nine months of 2022).