Vietnam temporarily pauses exporting vegetables to Europe

HANOI, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam will pause quarantine license for vegetables, fruits exported to Europe from now to Jan. 31, 2015, said the Post-import Plant Quarantine Center under Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Department of Plant Protection on Wednesday.

Earlier, local media reported that Vietnamese vegetables exported to the European Union (EU) have been continuously warned for detection of bacteria harmful to consumers' health.

Specifically, since Feb. 1, 2014, the European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) has been informed three times for contaminated vegetables, fruits from Vietnam into EU market while wood-made packages from Vietnam to EU have been warned once so far.

A ban on importing Vietnamese vegetables, fruits into the market will be issued if five similar cases of violating EU regulations on food safety and quarantine are detected during one year from Feb. 1, 2014 to Feb. 1, 2015.

Commenting on the halt of exporting Vietnamese vegetables to the market, Dang Van Hoang, head of the Vegetation Quarantine Bureau of Region II under MARD, said on Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper on Wednesday that this is a necessary move to prevent Vietnamese products from being in the "blacklist" of DG SANCO and avoid being banned from exports to the market.

Hoang said this is a consequence of the acts of several local companies, whose irresponsible practices affected the whole country's vegetable, fruit sector.

Source: Xinhua