A change in food safety certification procedures has reportedly left Vietnamese dragon fruit exporters unable to ship their produce, with around 100 tonnes already spoiled and European buyers cancelling orders
Dragon fruit exports from Vietnam have reportedly been “seriously disrupted” after an apparent failure to secure the necessary food safety certificates for large consignments of the fruit.
According to Vietnamnet Global, production amounting to around 150-170 tonnes from 450ha of GlobalGap-certified plantation could go to waste, with around 100 tonnes already said to have spoiled due to the delay.
Huynh Canh, chairman of the Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit Association, was reported as saying that the backlog had lasted more than three weeks.
It appears that responsibility for certification of exports to the EU was recently reallocated from regional to provincial level, and this has caused the disruption.
As a result, European buyers have apparently cancelled orders and switched to suppliers in Thailand and Ecuador.
“Our businesses have been waiting at the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Department since 1 July, but this is the first time the department is handling such procedures, so things are still unclear,” one exporter told the news outlet. “We’ve proposed allowing temporary exports of dragon fruit until a formal process is implemented.”
Suppliers of peppers are also understood to have been affected by certification bottlenecks in recent weeks.
