In 2019, the Republic of Korea will tighten rules related to use of pesticides for agricultural products it imports, and Vietnam is expected to be affected. (Photo: baocongthuong.vn) HCM City (VNA) - In 2019, theRepublic of Korea (RoK) will tighten rules related to use of pesticides foragricultural products it imports, and Vietnam is expected to be affected.
With the advent of the Vietnam–Korea Free TradeAgreement in 2015, it has become much easier for Vietnamese agricultural andseafood products to enter the Korean market.
But the new regulations could change thingssince Vietnam still uses many types of pesticides in key export products suchas coffee, peanut, cashew, and fruits that it has not registered with the RoK.
The RoK has approved a list of 370 kinds ofpesticides and all imported agricultural products are carefully checked whenthey land in its ports.
According to the Korean Trade and InvestmentPromotion Agency (KOTRA), imports of foods have increased sharply andauthorities have to tighten oversight.
In 2016, the country unveiled a pesticides listto improve food safety, applying it now to tropical fruits and various seeds,and it will apply to all agricultural products from the beginning of 2019.
KOTRA also reported that in 2015 – 2017 manyVietnamese products were refused entry into the RoK because of high pesticidecontent or use of unapproved pesticides.To find a solution, Vietnameseauthorities strengthened their ties with their Korean counterparts.
The Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment’s Plant Protection Department has worked with the Korean Animal andPlant Quarantine Agency to supervise processing of dragon fruits and mangobefore exporting to that country.
Vietnam has also provided all information aboutstar apple, longan, litchi, and rambutan to the agency.
To help Vietnamese enterprises exportagricultural products to the RoK, the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment has made regulations for the registration, manufacturing, trading,and usage of pesticides more stringent and set up propagation models to promotebiological pesticides, targeting 30 per cent use of biological pesticides by2020,” said Bui Thanh Huong of the Plant Protection Department .
The Department has stepped up oversight of theuse of pesticides and provides companies with information about new food safetyregulations in importing nations.-VNA
VNA
