Enterprises told they must follow GMP or shut down business

Only 15 veterinary medicine factories can meet the GMP standards (good manufacturing practice), while there are about 150 enterprises operating in the field.

Veterinary medicine manufacturers will have to shut down their businesses and have operation licenses revoked, if they cannot show the GMP certificates by December 31, 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has warned.

Businesses complain they meet too many difficulties

Though the deadline is nearing, a lot of enterprises still cannot build the factories which meet GMP standards. Phan Minh Nghi, Director of Minh Ngan Veterinary Medicine Company, said that the company thought of building a GMP standard factory three years ago, but it still has not arranged enough money to do that due to the economic downturn.

MARD has decided that enterprises must meet the GMP standards by the end of the year. However, the deadline for enterprises that make powder machine can be extended until the end of 2012.

Meanwhile, enterprises have said that the extension would not help them overcome difficulties, because liquid medicine brings more than 50 percent of the total revenue of enterprises. If the enterprises cannot manufacture and trade liquid medicine, they will lose 50 percent of revenue.

Nghi also said that manufacturers have to provide both liquid and powder medicine to clients, because farmers have to use both liquid and powder medicine in accordance with the treatment regimens.

“If you do not have liquid medicine, your powder medicine will be unsalable,” Nghi explained.

He went on to say that MARD should extend the deadline for two more years. Once enterprises can obtain stable income from their products, their plans to build GMP standard factories would become more feasible.

According to experts, it costs about 50 billion dong to build a production line that meets GMP standards. With the current overly high lending interest rate of over 20 percent, businesses will not be able to seek capital from financial sources.

Director of a veterinary medicine company in HCM City has revealed that his company cannot afford such a high lending interest rate, which has forced him to delay the building of a GMP standard factory.

Meanwhile, the enterprises are facing big difficulties due to the demand decreases. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has allowed importing pork in big quantities, which then has forced the pork price down. However, this has led to farmers giving up farming and scaling down the production.

Huynh Van Hien, Director of Gau Vang Company, said that the halt of the production would lead to big consequences to enterprises in terms of workshops and labor force.

Under the MARD”s decision, the enterprises which cannot meet GMP standards, will have to shift to do the outsourcing for other enterprises. However, enterprises say that they will not have the opportunities to do that. Once spending a lot of money to build GMP standard factories, GMP enterprises will do everything to eliminate the rivals who cannot meet GMP.

MARD: stricter control needed

While businesses complain that they do not have money for GMP standard factories, MARD has been insisting on the necessity to apply the strict regulation.

Huynh Van Nam, a senior official of MARD, said that the deadline has been extended for several times already, and that enterprise must follow the regulations now.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Chair of the Vietnam Veterinary Association, also thinks that it is necessary to rearrange the veterinary market, and that the GMP standard imposition is a necessity. He emphasized that this is a process Vietnam must follow as it is now a member of the World Trade Organisation WTO.

However, Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon has quoted a source as saying that in order to help enterprises overcome difficulties, MARD would organize two meetings in Hanoi and HCM City, where it will listen for the opinions of enterprises.

Source: TBKTSG