New standards to target shoddy fertilizer makers

The agriculture ministry’s department of crop production will standardize the process of making organic fertilizer in Vietnam to solve long-running management and quality monitoring issues.

The process will be submitted to the Government in June, Nguyen Tri Ngoc, director of the department, said at a government seminar on a new decree for fertilizer production and trading management in HCMC last week.

Ngoc told the Daily on the sidelines of the seminar there are 400 to 500 fertilizer manufacturing plants in Vietnam with over 4,000 products. As a result, authorities have found it hard check the quality of all the products.

“A fertilizer enterprise should have at least one technician with university level qualifications and five years of experience. I think the regulation will help reduce poor-quality products on the market,” Ngoc said, adding that large volumes of substandard and fake fertilizers have surfaced in recent years.

The decree would also require fertilizer traders to take training courses on fertilizer quality.

The Government last year issued a decree to impose administrative fines on fertilizer production and trading violations with maximum penalties of VND150 million. The department would increase the maximum fine.

“High fines and stricter production standards should have a good impact on fertilizer market,” Ngoc said.

Tags: Vietnam fertilizer industry