Speaking at a conference on food quality, safety and hygiene in the agricultural sector yesterday, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, said that food hygiene and safety was still a problem and directly impacted society in Vietnam.
The ministry plans to prioritise supervising the use of agricultural materials, especially pesticides due to the risk of serious environmental pollution. As part of this plan, last year the ministry banned 300 kinds of pesticides.
In terms of fertilizer, Minister Cuong said it was necessary to promote switching from inorganic to organic fertilizer as estimates state that up to 12 millions of tonnes of inorganic fertilizer is used for agriculture, causing pollution and reducing the quality of agricultural products.
Following this plan the government hopes to continue their recent advancements in food safety. Last year, for example the percentage of vegetables containing pesticides was 4.1 per cent, a reduction of 3.66 per cent compared to the previous year.
Authorised agencies inspected more than 21,360 businesses in agriculture, forestry and aquaculture and found 1,923 businesses to be in violation of the law.
