Efforts are being made to restore the banana growing area code

​(News Portal – Dong Nai) - Trang Bom district has the largest banana plantation area in the province, and is also the locality with the most growing area codes and packaging facilities that have had their exports suspended. This has directly affected output, prices, and reputation of exported products. 

Checking for mealybugs on banana trees in Thanh Binh commune

Organizations are trying to recover by strictly controlling the production and packaging process; as well as submitt applications to reopen and issue new codes.

Suspended multiple product codes

With more than 6 thousand hectares, Trang Bom district has the largest planted banana area in the province. Bananas here are mainly exported to the Chinese market. At the request of partners, state management agencies have supported individuals, cooperatives, and businesses to set up 22 planting area codes and 32 packaging facility codes. In September 2023, many growing area codes were suspended due to plant quarantine violations, and were warned by the Chinese partners about these violations.

Mr. Vu Van Toan, a business household in Thanh Binh commune, said that his facility had 2 growing area codes and 1 packaging code temporarily suspended. This puts more than 60 hectares of bananas that are about to be harvested at risk of not being able to be exported, leaving both the facility and the garden badly affected.

"When the plantations are ready to be harvested, we have to ask people to sell them domestically, while the facility has nothing to export. We are working to fix it so that the authorities can inspect and reopen the code as soon as possible, because bananas are already in harvest season" - Mr. Toan said.

Real Farm Company Limited in Thanh Binh commune also had its growing and packaging area code suspended. This suspension greatly affects the consumption as well as the selling price of bananas.

Mr. Le Thanh Hoa, director of the company, said he was quite worried because the bananas were about to be harvested. The company is making efforts to lift the ban on the codes by educating farmers on proper care and use of pesticides at the correct dosage, as well as investing in building a new banana washing tank and a pulley system to transport bananas from the plantation to the tank.

“Each growing area code includes many different plantations. Some owners take good care of it, while others do not follow the correct process, leading to products containing mealybugs. This is an expensive lesson for us in quality control in the future" - Mr. Hoa said.

Currently, the largest banana growing area in the province is about to enter the main harvest season. However, many owners have not had their growing and packaging area codes unbanned. Not only are output and prices affected, but more importantly, the reputation of exported products is damaged.

Ms. San Thi Thuy, crop officer of Trang Bom District Economic Department, said that the district had 8 growing area codes and 12 packaging codes that were suspended due to the inspection process of export shipments containing mealybugs. Revoked codes must strictly comply with regulations and stop exporting until the ban was lifted. Currently, banana prices are around 7-9 thousand VND/kg, lower than before, but is still at an acceptable level.

Maintain product reputation

After the above incident, the Trang Bom District Party Committee and People's Committee directed local authorities to organize training classes on production processes, instruct gardeners to set insect traps, and pay attention to pest prevention and treatment. For packaging codes, establishments must invest in washing tanks, fully implement technical measures to ensure the cleaning of harmful organisms on products and properly package them before export.

Also according to Ms. Thuy, the district still has many banana growing areas that do not have a growing area code. While waiting for the codes to be restored, the district instructs establishments to make new codes in areas with available space to ensure the source of export goods.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Tu, Director of Trang Bom Agricultural Service Cooperative, said that the facility had a growing and packaging area code but does not meet export requirements. Therefore, the cooperative was upgrading 1 growing area code and adding 1 new growing area code. Learning from this incident, the cooperative would closely monitor farmers on three criteria: quality, yield and pest control. Products that do not meet one of these criteria will not be allowed for export.

​China is a major export market for Vietnam's agricultural products. This market is increasingly demanding high quality imported products, including growing area codes and packaging codes. Therefore, it is inevitably to run into a situation where farmers race to create codes without paying enough attention to quality, leading to many of them being suspended and revoked.

Packing bananas for export 

This is a wake up call for farmers and owners, as well as packaging facilities, and state management agencies in complying with requirements, quality control, and management of issued codes.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Vo Van Phi said that growing area codes, as well as GAP standards, cannot be granted and done, but its status must be upholding. Production, harvesting, and packaging must comply with procedures to ensure quality. He believed that local authorities needed to strengthen control of plant quarantine in growing areas and export packaging facilities to avoid violations, leading to the risk of losing the market. There are sanctions to deal with code fraud and repeated violations. ​