Businesses exporting rice to the EU must strictly control pesticide residues

DNHN - According to the Vietnamese Trade Office in the EU, to continue competing and expanding the market, businesses need to pay attention to managing rice quality, especially controlling pesticide residues.

Under the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), the EU has committed to providing a quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice per year to Vietnam, including regular white rice, brown rice, fragrant rice and broken rice. Thanks to the EVFTA, Vietnam can export about 100,000 tonnes of rice to the EU annually. After 3-5 years, the EU will reduce the tax rate on rice products from Vietnam to 0%.

Enjoying a 0% tax rate for rice within the quota has helped Vietnamese rice compete with other rivals when exporting to the EU. However, the price of Vietnamese rice exported to the EU is often higher because the main types of rice are high-value fragrant rice such as ST25 and ST24. Some rice-based processed products have also successfully penetrated the EU’s modern distribution system.

To continue competing and expanding the market, businesses need to pay attention to managing rice quality, especially controlling pesticide residues. The threshold for pesticide residues in rice is regulated to be below 0.01mg/kg and the EU regularly checks food safety quality. The product recall, such as the case of ST25 rice in 2021 due to exceeding the residue threshold, is an important lesson for businesses.

To expand the market and take advantage of the incentives from the EVFTA, Vietnam needs to continue negotiating and expanding the list of rice varieties imported into the EU, including fragrant rice varieties such as ST24 and ST25. This will increase export opportunities and enhance competitiveness in the EU market.

The Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) believes that although Vietnam is among the top rice exporting countries, the Vietnamese rice brand is still “insignificant”. These shortcomings must be resolved to increase export value and create sustainable output for Vietnam’s agricultural sector.

Vietnamese rice exporting businesses must pay more attention to brand building and have a comprehensive brand promotion strategy for high-quality Vietnamese rice. In particular, it is necessary to ensure quality, meet quarantine standards, ensure timely delivery and comply with signed contracts.

P.V