US rejects rice because of pesticide residues
Only 10 companies
are able to export quality rice to the US
Vo Thanh Do, deputy head of
Department of Processing and Trade for Agro, Forestry and Fisheries Products
and Salt Production, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,
said they had to issue a warning on September 30 about the situation as 95
containers of rice shipments weighing 1,700 tonnes, have been returned in the
first four months of 2016 because of pesticide residues.
Firms that have shipments
returned repeatedly will be banned from exporting to the US.
Pham Thai Binh, director of
export company Trung An, said, "Companies that are compromising rice
quality are endangering Vietnam's reputation in the US and the world. If this
can't be fixed, Vietnam may lose markets and be banned from exporting."
According to Binh, both
farmers and firms should take the blame. Farmers still abuse pesticides and
fertilisers while many firms don't follow Vietnamese or global good
agricultural practices.
After years of exporting huge
volumes of goods to China and Africa, which don't require high-quality rice,
farmers are used to pursuing quantity, not quality.
"Europe, Japan or the US
require high-quality products and will even ban rice that contains
pesticides. These markets require lower amounts of high-quality produce, so
the farmers aren't really concerned," Binh said.
A representative from Vietnam
Food Association further explained that there was a time when farmers were
encouraged to increase crops through the use of fertilisers.
As a result, they had to face
even more diseases and farmers were forced to use even more pesticides.
Vietnam is now losing out to Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar. Cambodia uses
the same rice seeds but they have successfully exported produce to the US and
Germany.
On the other hand, dependency
on pesticides and other chemicals to increase the grain rice size is costing
Vietnam the chance to make high-quality rice. In addition, some firms also
mix different types of rice together and are rejected.
Vietnam continues importing
huge amounts of pesticide, mostly from China. During the first three quarters
of this year, Vietnam spent USD496m on pesticides and other materials.
In reality, many people are
still using banned chemicals. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Health are
responsible for managing this issue, but the results are ineffective.
Director of Viet Hung Company
Nguyen Van Don said, "About 10 companies are able to export quality rice
to the US. And those are companies that plant their own rice instead of
buying produce from small farmers."
Don suggested establishing
co-operatives as a solution. The co-operatives will rent farm land to plant
crops so that they will have full control over the process.
Director of Trung An Company
Pham Thai Binh agreed that firms must have closer relationships with farmers
in order to set up high-quality material areas. He went on to say that
Vietnam should invite consultants from Japan or the US to help.
PL TPHCM
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Thứ Hai, 3 tháng 10, 2016
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