A delegation of Indian import-export businesses led by Sarvesh Rai, Director of the Plant Protection Centre under the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, visited Ho Chi Minh City on Feb. 9.

The delegation inspected several batches of quarantined goods at ports in the city as well as examining procedures concerning animal feed, corn and wheat imported from India that fails to meet quarantine requirements and is re-exported.

They also took part in a seminar on quarantine regulations on various goods during which Rai explained India ’s plant quarantine programme for agricultural products and animal feed.

He pledged closer links with Vietnamese management agencies to be able to take more effective measures to address goods shipped to Vietnam but do not meet the necessary quarantine requirements.

According to Nguyen Van Nga, Head of the Zone 2 Plant Quarantine Inspection Department, in 2011, 34 quarantined commodities, amounting to 1.2 million tonnes, were imported from India to Vietnam through Ho Chi Minh City ’s ports. Of this total, nearly 15,000 tonnes failed to meet quarantine requirements and had to be returned.

Since the beginning of this year, nearly 8,000 tonnes of goods imported from India have been re-exported./.